TLoS: Shadow of Doom
by Pacer287
Summary: Within the ruins of Malefor's fortress, a tortured soul awakens, and he will stop at nothing to take revenge on those who filled his life with pain, and is willing to kill anyone who gets in his way. This is my first fic so there are going to be some errors, LIVE WITH IT. Other than that, please R&R, criticism welcome. Rated M for Blood, language and just a little bit of gore.
1. Chapter 1

The Legend of Spyro: Shadow of Doom

Prologue

Cynder walked through the halls of the Dark Masters fortress, ignoring the apes and monsters that bowed to her as she passed, her task was to important for her to be bothered by the formalities of lesser soldiers. Soon she arrived in a large chamber that served as a laboratory for Daedalus, the lead scientist of the apes, Malefore had recently approved of a plan proposed by the mad ape, and Cynder had gone herself to give him the news.

Unfortunately, it seemed as though Daedalus was not in his lab, most likely out gathering supplies for his experiments, it didn't matter to Cynder what he was out doing, all it meant was that she would have to wait for him to return before she could get back to fighting the dragons.

Thankfully, Daedalus had left her a cure for boredom, in the form of a young black dragon she had captured that was now chained to a table made of red crystals in the center of the room. Cynder walked over to the young dragon, an evil smile spread across her face, while she was certain that Daedalus would give her an earful if she harmed the young dragon, she was sure he wouldn't mind if she gave it the scare of a lifetime. As she approached the dragon, Cynder noticed the fear in his eyes, it was the fear of a dragon who knew he was facing his death, and there was nothing he could do to fight it.

"Are you scared you little scaled rat, humph, what am I saying? Of course your scared. Your chained to a table and trapped in a fortress with one of the most dangerous beings that ever lived." She said, keeping her voice soft and gently scratching his chin with one of her talons, causing the young dragon to panic even more, "It would be so simple to just end you right now, but fortunately for you there's someone who thinks you could be of more use to us alive."

"Yes, and he would appreciate it if you did not damage the subject."

Cynder turned her head to see Daedalus entering the room, a box of various tools in his hands.

"Ah Daedalus, it's nice to see that you finally decided to show up." Cynder replied angrily, "and don't worry about your precious little test subject, he's just a little shaken up, that's all" she said, removing her talon from his chin and using it to hold his jaw, she then slowly began to turn his head, viewing all sides of his terrified face.

"Why you think this pathetic excuse of a dragon is worth the trouble is beyond me, as soon as he saw me he fell to his knees and begged me to end him quickly, didn't even try to fight back, if you ask me we should just kill this miserable wretch." She said, eager to tear the shivering cowards throat open.

"But Malefore believes my plan has merit, doesn't he, or did you just not want me to come home and see that worms corpse on my table?" Daedalus said with a knowing tone,

"The Dark Master has given you permission to begin your experiment." Cynder answered

"I'll be dropping in from time to time to check on your progress and... Cherish the screams." Cynder finished, a twisted, sadistic smile spreading across her lips as she turned to leave.

"WAIT" the young dragon called to Cynder, his voice trembling, "Don't leave me here, don't leave me to be tortured by that thing." He begged, stuttering over every word.

"Oh don't worry young one," Cynder said, enjoying the young dragons fear, "Your not going to be tortured, your going to be experimented on, you won't die for our amusement." Cynder said.

"Why are you doing this to me? I have no element, no family, I don't even have a name."

Cynder simply said to the dragon "Your name is what you will be to the enemies of the Dark Master, to any who dare oppose the power of Malefore, your name is what they will feel as they draw there last breath, as there last drop of blood exits there veins, as they realize there fight is hopeless, your name is Doom."

"D-D-D-Doom?" The young dragon said.

"Yes,"Cynder replied coldly, "Now I have to go, but don't worry Daedalus is going to stay here and keep an eye on you."

"That's right, now hold still." Daedalus said, pulling a scalpel out of his box of tools.

"Wh-What's that for?" The young dragon asked fearfully,

"Shush now young one" Daedalus said in a soft, almost comforting voice, "Just hold still, and if you feel any pain, just remember that it's only your arm being cut off at the shoulder!" He said gleefully before stabbing the scalpel into the dragon.

Cynder walked out of the room, stopping at the door for a moment to enjoy the sound of the young dragon screaming in, well, saying it was agony would be a gross understatement.

_Several_ _years_ _later_

Daedalus lead Gaul through the tunnels of Malefore's fortress, talking on and on about something or other that the ape king had no interest in, all he wanted to do was get this over with and get back to the frontline before anything interesting happened,

"I know you are eager to return to the war Gaul." Malefore said, using a dark crystal to communicate with the ape king from his prison in the Well of Souls. "But try to keep focused, what Daedalus has been working on these past years could turn this war permanently in our favor."

"All I know is that there's been a lot of screaming coming out of his room over the years, in truth I thought it was just another torture chamber until I get the order to come all the way back here just to see some half finished experiment." Gaul said, making no effort to hide the agitation in his voice.

"Well my experiment may only be half finished, when completed it will prove even more effective then you pathetic soldiers ever were." Daedalus shot back.

"Silence, both of you!" Malefore shouted, "I'll not have my underling bickering like hatchlings while you show us your progress Daedalus."

"Yes and speaking of which." Daedalus said, opening the door to his laboratory, "Know, let me start at the beginning. Several years ago, Cynder captured a male black dragon, about the same age she would have been if she was not corrupted at the time. She brought him here to me so that I could begin my experiment, which you so graciously approved, Dark Master." Daedalus said, "which brings us to where we are now, BEHOLD." He shouted, pulling down a large curtain in the center of the room.

Gaul gasped at what was behind it, the young dragon, chained to a table of red crystals and nearly mutilated beyond recognition. His wings and tail had been cut clean off, as well as his right fore leg, there where large holes cut into his sides and chest where his still functioning organs could be seen, worst of all was what had happened to his head, his lower jaw and the entire left side of his throat had been removed, as had the top of his skull and the right side of his face, though his snout was still intact. As he looked closer, Gaul realized that he could not see the right side of the dragons brain, then he noticed it inside of a jar on a nearby shelf, and though Gaul held no love for the dragon race, he couldn't help but feel pity for the young dragon, the poor thing had spent most of his life chained to that table being cut to pieces by Daedalus.

"How is that little bastard even still alive?" Gaul asked.

"The table he's chained to is made crystals that have a healing effect on dragons," Daedalus said, "it's been keeping him alive all these years, and he doesn't even need to eat, sleep, drink, or breathe."

"Most impressive, Daedalus." Malefore said, "but tell me, are you ready to begin the second faze of your experiment?"

"The only reason I haven't already begun is to make certain you where satisfied with my progress, Dark Master." Daedalus said eagerly.

"Excellent, Gaul you may go and prepare for your assault on the temple, simply remember that I want Cynder captured alive and brought to the Well of Souls, the purple dragon they call Spyro should no doubt follow." Malefore ordered.

"Thank you sir," Gaul said, all to eager to get out of Daedalus's slaughter house. "I'll head back to the main army and begin the attack." And then he left.

"Daedalus, you may continue with the experiment." And with that the Dark masters crystal disappeared, leaving Daedalus alone with his favorite victim.

"Don't worry little one," Daedalus said, picking up a small metal object, "the hard part is over, now all we have to do is put you back together."

As he spoke, Doom got a better look at the object in Daedalus's hand, then realized in horror that it was a metal replica of a heart with small green crystals on the sides, then he felt the ape moving his hand into one of the hole that had been cut into his chest.

Doom knew what was coming, and he didn't fight it. He didn't struggle as he felt Daedalus's hand close around his heart.

He'd learned that struggling only made the pain worse.

_Several_ _hours_ _after_ _Malefore's_ _defeat_

With the Dark Master gone, there was nothing to keep the remains of his fortress floating above the Mountain of Malefore, the great fortress began to fall, slowly at first, but it gradually began to pick up speed as it fell, until it finally hit the ground and was reduced to rubble.

Then something rose up out of the rock pile, at first glance it appeared to be a young black dragon, the same age as Spyro and Cynder. But looking closer, it was clear that he was no normal dragon, his wings and tail where both made of metal, as was his right fore leg, there where plates of metal fused into his sides and his chest was almost completely replaced with metal. Worst of all was his head, his lower jaw and the left side of his throat where both completely metal, the top of his skull, the right side of his face, and his horns where also reconstructed in this manner, his right eye was completely red with no pupil or lid, just a red, featureless eye, his left eye on the other hand was completely normal except for the red colored iris, he had two horns shaped like halves of a cresent moon, both curved in the opposite direction, nearly creating a circle above his head, his tail had a spearhead at the end, almost identical to Spyro's.

The strange new dragon looked around, adjusting to his new environment, adjusting to freedom; something he hadn't had in over ten years, "_Alright_, _let's_ _see_ _if_ _I_ _can_ _work_ _the_ _equipment_ _that_ _evil_ _bastard_ _fused_ _into_ _me_." He thought, wanting to test his new abilities on a greater level than the times he'd broken out of whatever was being used to restrain him, then a thought came to him, he already knew how to use everything that Daedalus had grafted into him, why not put them to good use and, oh sweet irony, use them to kill the very beings that had filled his life with pain.

The dragon activated a special scanner that Daedalus had grafted into his brain, and set it to search for Malefore, the dragon who had approved the mad apes plans to rebuild him, but to his displeasure he found that the Dark Master was untraceable, and the only way that was possible was if he was dead. The dragon reset his scanner, this time searching for Gaul, only to be met by the same result. Frustrated the dragon began thinking, he knew that Daedalus was dead, he'd seen to that the first time he escaped, so why did he feel like he had some unfinished business. Then a thought popped into his head, he reset the scanner, and was given a sense of satisfaction when it drew a path to the exact location of his target.

The dragon looked down from the mountain, into a forest in the distance, and could barely contain himself when he saw a crosshair appear over a small energy source in the trees. The dragon was filled with a dark joy, finally he would have revenge against the very being who had brought him to that fortress, ordered him experimented on, and then stood bye and cherished his every last scream of pain.

Looking down at his target, Doom loosed an angry roar,

**"CYNDER!"**


	2. Chapter 2

TLoS: Shadow of Doom

Chapter One

Spyro flew as faster than he had in his entire life, Cynder right on his tail, both of them trying to get out of the reconstructing world before it either sealed them in or crushed them! Spyro quickly dove to avoid another boulder then quickly resumed flying towards the shrinking crack in the rocks above, beating his wing so hard he was afraid that he might rip them off, getting closer and closer to freedom, then another boulder fell towards him. Spyro didn't waste any time dodging it, he just blasted it to dust and kept flying, the light getting closer but the hole getting smaller, Spyro closed his eyes and prayed he could get there before it closed.

After a few moments Spyro opened his eyes and looked around, and found himself hovering over a massive forest. Shocked, Spyro just looked around, unable to believe that he'd escaped the center of the world with his life. Then he saw Cynder, just hovering there and staring at him with the same 'I can't believe we're still alive' look that he had. Then, they both spontaneously broke into laughter, unable to contain the sheer joy of there situation, they where alive, the world was restored, and Malefor was sealed away forever. It was finally over.

"Hey Spyro" Cynder called, managing to get enough control over her excitement to form the words.

"What?" Spyro asked,

"Catch me if you can!" She called back playfully, before flying off,

"Hey, get back here!" Spyro half shouted, half laughed before giving chase.

He chased her over the forest until sunset, never getting any closer or farther than when he started until finally Cynder slipped up, she made a hard right turn, Spyro thrusted forward and tackled her mid-air, using his legs to pin her wings to her sides.

"Hey, get off me you lunatic!" Cynder shouted, shocked at the sudden turn of events.

"Hold on!" Spyro shouted, diving toward the ground.

"Ha ha, very funny." Cynder shot back agitatedly, "Now pull up, I didn't fly out of the worlds core just to let you splatter us all over its surface!"

Spyro just kept laughing, slowing there decent as they headed towards the ground and adjusting his body so they both landed on there side,

"Okay, you've had your fun," Cynder said panting heavily, "Now let me go!"

"Oh no you don't, Cyn," Spyro chucked, giving her a squeeze as she tried to squirm out of his grip, "Your not getting away from me this time."

Cynder just smirked, "Good luck holding onto me." She said before using her shadow power to transform into a cloud of smoke, phase through Spyro, then turn solid and take off running into the woods.

"Hey, no fare." Spyro shouted, firing a blast of ice that froze Cynders feet to the ground, then pouncing on her and pinning her down.

"Hey, no fare." Cynder giggled, trying to get out from under Spyro. After a few seconds, the legendary purple dragon smiled and let her up. "So what's next?" Spyro asked.

"What do you mean?" Cynder replied.

"I mean what happens now? Malefor is defeated, the worlds safe, what do we do now that this great adventure is over?"

Spyros words left Cynder disheartened, she flashed back to the moment before he pulled the world back together, when she had finally told the purple dragon how she truly felt about him, "Didn't he hear me?" She thought.

"Hey, Cynder." Spyro said, waking her from her trance, "Are you okay? You look a little glum."

"Yeah, I'm fine." She said, "It's just that, well, it wasn't a great adventure for all of us, Spyro." She said, a few memories of her time as the Terror of the Skies drifting into her head.

"Oh Cynder, I'm sorry." Spyro said as he began nuzzling her, "I didn't mean it like that."

"It's alright, I just-" then she cut off, her gaze shifting to the Mountain of Malefor, where the Dark Masters fortress was beginning to fall.

"Well would you look at that." Cynder said, watching as the falling fortress began to pick up speed, "And so the final scars of the past age are removed." She said as the fortress hit the ground and was reduced to rubble by the force of the impact.

"The world is better off without it." Spyro agreed, staring up at the ruins.

"Yeah." Cynder said, suddenly feeling a chill run down her spine.

"Something wrong?" Spyro asked.

"Nothing, I just got a bad felling."

"Don't worry about it, we've had a rough couple weeks, that's all"

Then, suddenly, a loud roar filled the air, "That's some crazy thunder, huh?" Spyro asked, Cynder didn't answer, there was a knot forming in her stomach, something about that thunder didn't sound right, it almost sounded like someone shouting 'CYNDER'.

"Are you sure your alright, Cynder?" Spyro asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She said, wanting to get as far away from the mountain as possible. "Let's just get out of here." And with that Spyro and Cynder walked away, neither of them noticing the small, winged object flying towards the forest.

Doom landed a kilometer away from Cynder, he wanted to walk up to her and make certain she felt the same fear he did for all the years she had him trapped in that fortress, then he was gonna kill her, slowly and painfully. Walking closer, he detected a second energy signature near Cynder, it was similar to Malefor's but not quit as dark. "Must be that purple dragon, Spyro." Doom said to himself, he'd heard the rumors of Spyros existence, and he knew that Cynder had helped him defeat the Dark Master, and he didn't care. "It doesn't matter if she helped stop Malefor, hell, it wouldn't matter if she took him down and pulled the world back together on her own. She's gonna die for what she's done to me!" Then Doom heard them talking,

"Hey Spyro," Cynder said, "is it just me or does it sound like someone's coming."

"Yeah it does, what should we do?"

"Let's try to figure out who they are."

"Better not keep them waiting." Doom thought, smiling evilly to himself as walked into a small clearing where Spyro and Cynder had turned to face him.

Spyro and Cynder both gasped, shocked at the sight of the dragon that had just out of the shadows, "Who are you?" Cynder asked, the dragon only smiled back, then he chuckled and said.

"Oh, what, no names Cynder?" He said in a sarcastic tone, his voice was deep, deeper than Terradors. "Don't you remember me, remember all the fun times we had," his voice was growing angrier, "don't you remember, me chained to a table, you laughing as that ape cut me to pieces!" His voice shifted to an angry roar, "You made me suffer for over ten years, and now it's payback time, you're gonna die tonight, and I'm gonna be the one who ends you!"

Spyro stepped between Doom and Cynder, "Listen, pal." He said defensively, "I don't think you know who your dealing with, so I'll give you one chance to back off now, before I blast you back into whatever hole you crawled out of." Doom just sighed, it was clear that Spyro wasn't going to back down, and there was no way Doom was going to give up his chance at revenge for his stolen life.

"I know exactly who I'm dealing with, Spyro" Doom said, stalling while his automated systems loaded something to keep the purple dragon busy into a hidden launcher in his shoulder, "And it doesn't matter to me who you are or what you've done, so say goodbye to Cynder, this'll be the last time you see each other."

That was the end of it, no more talking, Spyro charged Doom, but the dragon only smirked and fired four bolas from a compartment in his shoulder; the first one wrapped around his mouth, tying it shut, the second bola tied his fore legs to his throat, the third shot pinned his wings to his side, and the final hit tied his tail and hind legs together. Spyro landed at Dooms feet, struggling to escape the metal cables.

"This fights between you and me, Cynder." Doom said, kicking the purple dragon to the side, "No one else."

Cynder charged in a blind rage, eager to tear Doom limb from limb for what he did to Spyro, Doom stood his ground, waiting calmly until the black dragoness was less than an inch away, then, faster than the eye could follow, he swung his mechanical right leg through the air and slapped her aside like a bug.

"Idiot!" Cynder scolded herself, "I should have stayed calm when I charged him." She looked back at the dragon, he hadn't moved other than putting his metal leg back down, now he was just staring straight ahead, as though Cynder was still standing there. Cynder took the chance, charging him from his left side, which was mostly organic except for his wing and throat, Cynder figured he couldn't have to many tricks hidden there. Suddenly, the Doom turned his head toward her, a ball of blue energy forming in his mouth, before Cynder could stop he fired an energy blast into the ground in front of her, the shockwave causing her to trip and go rolling across the ground, landing right at Dooms feet. Before she could do anything, the black dragon bit the back of her neck, shook her back and forth, then tossed her over his shoulder.

"Okay, new tactic." She thought, sneaking closer to Doom from the rear, watching his tail carefully, then she noticed that his tail blade looked different then she remembered, she had thought that it was a spearhead like Spyro's, but now she noticed that there where what appeared to be two smaller spikes sticking out of the sides, Cynder decided it wasn't important. When she was close enough, she pounced at him, then noticed the electricity jumping from from the two smaller spikes on his tail to the one in the center.

"This is gonna hurt." She thought, right before receiving an electric shock that sent her flying through the air, Cynder landed ten feet in front of Doom, exactly where she'd started the fight.

"Are you done warming up yet?" Doom called mockingly. Cynder answered by blasting him with the full force of her wind element, hoping to knock him off balance, but to her surprise he wasn't even blown back an inch!

"Really?" Doom shouted, "Your trying to beat an enemy that's mostly made of metal with a wind attack?" Cynder tried again, this time hoping to paralyze him with a fear blast, it seemed to work for a few seconds but then Doom just shook it off.

"Using fear to attack." Doom said, noticeably agitated. "That's just like you, Cynder. But unfortunately my brain is also largely mechanical, and it allows me to see through your illusions."

Cynder attacked with shadow this time, breathing a thick cloud of smoke, hoping that the lack of air would at least knock Doom unconscious, but when the smoke cleared, Doom was still standing there, completely unscathed. "My metal body doesn't need nearly as much oxygen as yours does, though I do applaud you, I just caught my second wind. Go ahead, give it another shot." Cynder could barely believe what was happening, she'd barely been fighting this guy for five minutes and he'd already beaten her to a pulp and shrugged off three of her elements, while she hadn't even been able to put a scratch on him.

"I have to do some damage, fast." She thought, "I've got one element left, lets see how he handles my poison." Cynder loosed her final element, her STRONGEST element, launching a jet of poison at the metal dragon, hoping that if the acidic effect didn't melt him the poison would kill him in a few hours. Doom saw the attack coming, raising his right fore leg and tilted his head so the poison mostly hit the mechanical parts of his body.

Cynder kept the acid jet going until she barely had any elemental energy left, stoping the stream and taking a few deep breaths she looked up to see what, if anything, was left of Doom, and to her horror, he was completely unscathed, shaking a few drops of poison off his arm. Cynder couldn't believe it, he'd taken a blast of poison for at least two minutes and there wasn't a mark on him.

"How?" Cynder gasped, unable to except what she was seeing.

"The metal I was reconstructed with is acid proof," Doom said in a matter-of-fact tone, "and my artificial blood destroyed the poison that did get into my body before it had a chance to do anything. So are you ready to start this fight or do I give you a little while longer to stretch."

Cynder couldn't believe how badly this was going for her, this dragon had barely even moved during the fight and had shrugged off everything she'd thrown at him, while she had thrown just about everything she had at him and had been beaten to a pulp as a result. There was a part of her that told her to get the hell out of there, but then she looked over at Spyro, still struggling to get out of the metal cables, and she knew she couldn't run away, who knew what that metal monster would do to him if she left him behind, and something told her that if this guy really was trying to take revenge he wouldn't let her get to far.

"Ahem," Doom called, frustrated that Cynder was loosing interest, "You want to die on your feet or are you going to just lie down and let me break your neck?" Cynder growled and settled into a fighting stance.

"Bring it!" She shouted,

"That's what I thought." Doom said, then he and Cynder charged into a vicious barrage of blows, hammering each other full force.

It was a hard fight, Dooms organic left arm hit as hard as his mechanical one, and his metal body parts where more resistant to damage than Cynders scales, and he knew how to make sure that she didn't get off a hit at his organic parts.

After a few minutes they broke off, Cynder was sweating and panting heavily, covered in cuts and bruises. Doom was breathing at normal speed, which was panting for him since he didn't need as much air as other dragons, the only mark he had was a dent in one of the metal plates on his side. "Had enough pain yet," Doom said, "Tired of tasting your own blood, ready to just lye down and die!"

"Never." Cynder snarled, spitting a mouthful of blood onto the ground and charging.

Doom smiled, Cynder didn't know it but she had just ended the fight, waiting till she was less than an inch away from him, he brought his mechanical right arm up full force, delivering an uppercut to her chest, then as Cynder went flying backward Doom jumped forward and planted his mechanical arm on her chest, pinning her to the ground, Cynder began to struggle, frantically trying to get free, clawing at his leg. It didn't do her any good, she couldn't do any damage to his mechanical arm and Doom was pressing harder on her chest as she struggled, finally she gave up, he was pressing so hard she could barely breath and she could feel her ribs where on the verge of breaking.

Doom looked down at Cynder, smiling at the fear in her eyes, it was the fear of a dragon who was about to die, and there was nothing she could do to fight it. He'd seen that fear many times before, when he'd seen his reflection in whatever Daedalus was using to take him apart.

"How does it feel Cynder." Doom said before giving Cynder an electric shock from his palm, "Being on the other end, hell, what am I saying, I already know how it feels!" Doom shocked her again, "I lived in pain infinitely worse than this for years, this is a massage compared to what I had to endure!"

"Why are you doing this?" Cynder asked, choking on blood and barely able to breath because the pressure Doom was putting on her chest, "Who are you?"

Dooms face filled with rage, he dragged Cynder across the ground, keeping the pressure on her chest firm, then he picked her up and slammed her against a tree, "Your a sick, cruel monster, you know that!" He roared at her, spitting in her face and and electrocuting her at a much higher voltage for longer than a quick shock like the first two. "First you capture me, have me experimented on for years, and now you deny your actions!"

"Please," Cynder whimpered, utterly broken by the sheer amount of pain Doom had hit her with. "I can barely remember anything from back when I was corrupted."

Doom reeled back and slammed her into the tree again, this time he slammed her clean through the the tree and held her limp body in the air, if her back wasn't broken after the first slam then it was definitely busted now. "YOU LOOK ME IN THE EYE AND TELL ME YOU DON'T REMEMBER ME!" Doom roared.

Cynder looked into his left eye, his organic eye, and tried to find something, anything, that she would remember. There was rage, hatred, anger, and pain, so much pain, and underneath the pain she could see fear, loneliness, and sorrow. This poor dragon had spent his life alone, being tortured and experimented on, then a memory popped into her head, she was standing in a room, a dragon chained to a table, his right fore leg was gone and there was an ape cutting off his wing, but the worse part of the memory was, bye far, the fact that she was enjoying the dragons screams as the ape cut his wing off, then a name suddenly drifted into her head.

"Doom?" She said weakly, Doom just lowered her to the ground.

"Yeah, it's me Cynder." He said, "And now," he raised his mechanical arm into the air, ready to strike the final blow. "Now its time to end it!"

"No!" Spyro thought as he flailed frantically, managing to rip off the cables that held his mouth shut, there was no time to think, Spyro fired a blast of convexity at Doom, sending him flying across the clearing, and through three trees.

"Dammit!" Doom thought as he staggered to his feet, he couldn't believe that he'd forgotten to watch Spyro. "Well that's the price I pay for getting caught up in the moment." Doom took a step forward, then noticed that he was having trouble moving his mechanical body parts. "That blast must have taken a lot out of me." Doom thought as he brought up his power level "twenty-two percent, yeah that blast definitely took a lot out of me." Doom weighed his options, he finally had Cynder, after all the years of pain and torment, he could finally take his revenge, but with his power level so low he doubted he could take down the pissed off purple dragon that was no doubt going to fight tooth and nail to defend her.

Doom looked up, Spyro was standing in-between him and Cynder, there was no way he could get to her without fighting the purple dragon, and if his power level got lower than five percent his organs where gonna have trouble functioning. "Another time then, but know this Cynder, I WILL end you one day!" Doom snarled before launching smoke pellets and disappearing into the forest.

"Cynder!" Spyro said, coughing as the smoke cleared and running over to his injured friends side, "Cynder, are you alright?" Spyro asked looking down at her broken body.

"No." Cynder said in a dry pain filled voice. "My backs broken, I can't move." Then she started pacing out.

"CYNDER! Just hold on Cyn, I'll take you to the temple, the guardians can help!" Spyro said, trying to reassure her as she slipped into unconsciousness, he then picked her up carefully, trying not to damage her back any more than it already was. "Please Cynder," he said out loud as he flew her toward the dragon temple, "Please don't die, I love you."


	3. Chapter 3

TLoS: Shadow of Doom

Chapter 2

Cynder sat in the corner of the room, listening to Doom scream in pain as Daedalus finished cutting his tail off, as the ape scientist carried the now-removed tail out of the room Cynder approached the subject, who was doing his best not to throw up. "Please," Doom begged, whatever will he had was utterly demolished by the amputations, "Just kill me, I don't care how you do it, just kill me and make the pain stop."

"Oh I'm afraid I can't do that," she said "You see, Daedalus's time is quit valuable, and since he's already spent six months on you, killing you now would be a waste of resources."

"Why are you doing this? What purpose does it serve to just cut me apart?"

"Well, for one thing I get to see how a dragon responds to pain," said Daedalus, who had returned from disposing of Dooms tail. "Specifically, how much you can take before your will shatters. And that's not even the point of the experiment."

"So what is the point of the experiment?" Doom asked, fearful of what they where going to do to him next!

"You'll see, I assure you, you'll be alive when where finished," Daedalus said in a sinister voice, "Now it's time to start on your other wing."

"MY OTHER WING!" Doom shouted in fear,

"Yes, your other wing, I'd meant to cut it off after I was done with the first one, but it slipped my mind somehow."

"PLEASE" Doom shouted to Cynder, "Kill me, I can't take it anymore." He begged,

"Hmm, it seems I forgot to mention the other reason I can't kill you." Cynder said, smiling sadisticly as she walked back to the corner of the room, "It's far to much fun listening to you scream!"

"PLEASE! NO!" Doom screamed, thrashing desperately, trying to break out of the chains,

"NO! NO! NO! AHHHHHHH!" He screamed as Daedalus drove the scalpel into the spot where his wing connected to his body.

Cynder snapped awake, thankful that the nightmare was over, "Oh, Cynder!" Spyro said, running over to her, "Thank the ancestors your finally awake!"

"Where are we?" She asked weakly

"We're at the dragon temple, I brought you here after that thing attacked us in the woods three days ago."

Then it all came back to her, escaping the worlds center, the battle, Doom. "I wish I remembered who he was when I saw him," she thought, "Maybe I could have talked him down, maybe I could have at least bought us some time to get away from him."

"It's okay, Cynder." Spyro said, noticing her fear, "Your safe here, if that thing tries to get you again, he'll have to get through the guardians, and me!"

"That's reassuring coming from the dragon who spent the last fight wrapped up." She chuckled, doing her best to make a joke out of the incident.

"Hey, I didn't see that coming," Spyro said, not noticing the joke, "If that dragon wants me out of the way in our next fight, it's gonna take a lot more than some metal cables to keep me down!"

"I hope your ready Spyro." Cynder said, "Because I got a feeling that he had a lot more tricks than what he showed us." Cynder said, she tried to get up but her movements where stiff, slow, it felt like he was walking underwater. "What's wrong with me?" She asked, then she saw the bandages wrapped around her back.

"You were beat up pretty bad," Spyro said, having trouble getting the words out. "Volteer said that if your back was worse than that, you wouldn't be able to move at all."

Cynder slowly moved her fore leg back and forth in front of her face, trying to come to terms with her condition. "How long am I going to be like this?" She asked, tears forming in her eyes.

"They said it would take decades to fully heal," Spyro said, practically choking on the news, "If it heals at all."

That was it, Cynder just couldn't take it any more, she'd been tormented by memories of her past the whole time she was unconscious, now she was hearing that she'd be moving like she was underwater for the rest of her life. "I'm sorry, Cynder." Spyro said as she put her head on his shoulder and broke into tears, he draped his wing over her and pulled her closer. "I should've seen those cables coming, should've been able to help you."

"Hey, Spyro!" Sparx called, flying into the room, "The Guardians need to talk to you-" then he noticed Cynder was awake, "Hey, Cyn!" Sparx called, flying down and hugging her neck,

"It's nice to see that your finally awake."

"It's nice to see too, Sparx." Cynder said, managing a small chuckle, "Now could you please let go of my neck, I need it to breath."

"What where you saying when you came in Sparx?" Spyro asked,

Sparx let go of Cynder, "The Guardians wanted to talk to you about that thing that attacked you two, they said they wanted to know more about it so that we'd be ready when it came after you again."

"They really think he'll come after us here?" Spyro asked.

"Your hiding from him in a giant temple which, ever since you pulled the world back together, has been floating in midair." Sparx said matter-of-factly, "Not exactly the most ideal place to lye low."

"He's right Spyro." Cynder said, "I'm frankly amazed that he hasn't found us already, the sooner we get ready for him the better."

"I'm sorry you lost me after 'he's right.'" Sparx said jokingly,

"Hey," Spyro said, scolding him. "Remember our deal."

"Ugh, alright." Sparx said, "Now come on, chop chop, let's go."

They started walking to the center of the temple, toward the chamber that held the Pool of Visions, Spyro walking slowly so Cynder could keep pace, then Cynder felt Sparx fly next to her ear.

"Don't you ever go nearly dying on us again!" Sparx whispered agitatedly,

"Didn't know you cared." Cynder replied,

"No, but I DO care about Spyro," Sparx shot back, "You didn't see him while you were out, the poor guy was a wreck, and he didn't sleep until I dropped a jug on his head."

"You did WHAT!" Cynder said, uncertain of whether she should laugh or try to kill Sparx.

"Well actually I knocked it off a shelf, which he just happened to be standing under, but that's not the point." Sparx said, shifting from an agitated tone to an awkward one,

"Well next time I'm fighting for my life against a dragon that's half statue, I'll try to remember to avoid getting hit." Cynder said in a humorous tone, "So what's this deal you made with Spyro hmm." Cynder asked.

"He made me promise that when you woke up we'd have a cease fire." Sparx said,

"Was this before or after you knocked him out?"

Sparx didn't answer, Cynder just chuckled and kept walking, then noticed that Spyro really did seem tired, "Hey Spyro," she said, "Are you okay?"

"I'm just a little out of breath, that's all." Spyro said, noticeably winded.

"Your not just a little out of breath, you need to rest." Sparx said, "Take five champ, or are we gonna have another accident?"

"Yeah, that reminds me." Spyro said mischievously before sending a gust of cold air at Sparx, freezing the dragonflies tail.

"YOW, COLD, COLD, COLD!" Sparx cried, flying in circles while Spyro and Cynder laughed, enjoying the show.

"Alright, ha ha, very funny." Sparx said unamused, "But seriously, take a breather Spyro."

"Okay Sparx." Spyro said, leaning against a wall.

"How come your so worn out?" Cynder asked.

"I had to hit that dragon with convexity, it was the only was to be certain he wouldn't just shrug off my attack." Spyro said.

"Even so, you hit him with one shot." Cynder replied, "There's no way your still this tired after only one blast of convexity."

"I admit I did lose some sleep while you were out," Spyro said,

"I thought so," Cynder replied, "Please promise me that if I get beat up like this again you won't exhaust yourself, it won't help either of us."

"Alright." Spyro said, "I promise, know come on Cyril's probably getting impatient."

"Ah, it's good to see your finally here." Cyril said impatiently as they walked into the Grotto.

"Cynder what are you doing here?" Volteer asked, "You should be back in your room resting."

"I know, but I think since I'm the one who fought this guy, and since I'm the one he's after, I should have some right to speak."

"Of course you do Cynder," Terrador said, "Please tell us everything you know."

"I know a lot more than I want too."

"What do you mean?" Spyro asked.

"His name is Doom, back when I was corrupted I captured him and brought him to the Dark Masters fortress."

"Why didn't you just kill him." Spyro asked, "Wasn't that your job, to wipe out the dragons?"

"Yes, but there was an ape, a scientist named Daedalus, he wanted a live dragon for an experiment."

"What was the purpose of the experiment what was he trying to achieve?" Volteer asked, clearly interested that there was an ape with any interest in science.

"He was trying to fuse a dragon metal parts, hoping to create the ultimate killer." Cynder replied, "The bane of all Malefor's enemies."

"I'm guessing that's where the name Doom came from?" Spyro asked.

"Yes, and I should know, I gave it to him, and then I watched for years as Daedalus literally cut him to pieces." Cynder said, tears forming in her eyes. "And the worse part is, I loved listening to him scream."

"It's okay Cynder." Spyro said draping his wing over her, "No one can blame you for-"

"Shh" Sparx said, interrupting Spyro.

"Sparx, nows not the time-"

"SHH," Sparx shushed him again, "Did you guys hear that?"

Everyone held there breath, listening for the slightest noise, and then the wall exploded.

"Cynder, get behind me!" Spyro said, using his wings to shield her from the debris.

"Cynder" a deep, angry voice growled from within the dust cloud.

Everyone looked up, and sure enough, there was Doom, walking through the hole he'd blasted in the wall "This time, nothing will save you."

The guardians stepped in-between Doom and his target, "Spyro get Cynder out of here!" Cyril shouted before leaping into the air and blasting Doom with a steady stream of ice, the metal dragon simply raised his tail, two spike extended out of the side, then it fired an electric blast that went right down Cyril's throat, electrocuting him from the inside out!

"Spyro you have to leave now!" Volteer said, leaping into the air and sending a bolt of electricity at Doom, who countered with a energy beam from his mouth. The two beams of energy hit each other and it appeared the two dragons where evenly matched.

"Spyro stop standing around and let's get out of here!" Sparx said.

"I can't just leave the guardians to fight this guy alone!" Spyro said, "They need my help!"

"Spyro, Cynder can't fly!" Terrador shouted, "She won't be able to escape the temple if we fail! Now get out of here!" Volteer tried to gain the upper hand by firing blasts of electricity out of his wings with each flap, bypassing Dooms energy beam and hitting him directly, but that only made Dooms energy beam stronger and he soon overpowered the electric guardian, blasting him through a wall.

Doom turned to face Terrador only to receive a blast of earth that sent him staggering back, Terrador pressed his attack, hammering Doom with earth-reinforced blows before he could recover. When he finally stopped, Doom looked down at himself, his body was mangled, bruised, dented, crushed, and bloodied. "NO!" Doom thought as he felt himself fading, "I've come to far to die now, I WILL NOT FAIL!"

"Nice job Terrador." Sparx said as the earth guardian stepped back from Dooms mangled corpse, "I knew you could do it."

"Come... To... Far..."

"Who said that?" Sparx asked nervously, "Spyro are you messing with me? Please tell me that's just you messing with me!"

"To... Die... Now..."

"Oh you have got to be kidding!" Cynder said as Dooms broken body began to rise.

"Will... Not... FAIL!" Mechanical cables began to extend from Dooms shoulder and in between his wings, they started moving across his body, and with each pacing second Dooms condition improved

"There healing him!" Cynder shouted in surprise, taking a few stiff steps backward.

The cables retracted, Doom was fully healed, he cracked his neck and gave Terrador the 'is that all you got' look before settling into a fighting stance. Terrador snarled and got into his own stance, then Doom fired three small, metal balls that landed in front of the earth guardian and exploded, letting out clouds of green gas. "What the-?" Terrador didn't get a chance to finish the question before he started coughing and passed out.

"This can't be happening!" Spyro thought as he looked around the room, the guardians where some of the most powerful dragons in the world, and Doom had just taken them down like they were nothing! "What's it gonna take to stop this guy?" Doom turned his attention to the two dragons, a murderous glint in his eye. Spyro stepped forward, ready to fight, he was going to stop Doom or die trying! "You're not getting past me!" He roared, ready for anything Doom could throw at him.

Anything except for what Doom threw at him, Doom fired an energy blast from between his horns, but instead of hitting Spyro it created a sphere of energy around him, trapping the purple dragon inside! "NO!" Spyro shouted, trying to break out of the sphere. "Doom, please," Spyro cried as Doom walked around him, "I'm begging you, please don't kill her."

"Shut up!" Doom shouted, "You have no idea what she put me through, you think I was born this way?" Doom gestured to the mechanical side of his head with his metal fore leg. "She did this to me, she had me cut to pieces and put back together like this!"

"They know, Doom." Cynder said, "I told them everything, and I know you have no reason to believe me, but I'm suffering enough with the memories."

"No, your not, you still have your life."

"So your just gonna kill her, no remorse?" Spyro asked,

"Remorse, remorse, uh let me think." Doom said, "I think I lost that when Daedalus, quite literally, ripped out my heart."

"I understand why your angry, but before you kill me, will you answer one last question?" Cynder asked,

"Alright but make it quick." Doom said, raising his mechanical fore leg, ready to strike.

"Is it really you that wants to do this, or are you corrupted?"

"Is she really that naive, of course I want to do this." "But there's something different about her." "Yes, it's the fact that she knows she's helpless unlike the first time we met." "No, it's something else, she's changed, she really does regret what she did, maybe she deserves a second chance." "A second chance, she gave you a fate worse than death, and you think she deserves a second chance because she's having second thoughts over a decade afterwards?" "All she did was capture me, Daedalus did everything else, why do I keep talking like she actually hurt me? Her actions weren't her own." "Because if she hadn't captured you, you could have lived a happy life instead of being tortured for all those years." Doom could barely believe it, he was arguing with himself! "What's wrong with me?" He thought,

Then he had a flash back, he was chained to the crystal table again, but all his metal parts had been attached, and he was asleep at the time, Malefor and Daedalus were talking to each other.

"Spyro and Cynder have returned." Malefor said,

"Should I send Doom out to stop them?" Daedalus replied, "It sounds like the kind of trial by fire he needs."

"No, he has grown to rebellious, it appears that when you rebuilt his body, you rebuilt and fortified his will as well."

"So what do you want me to do?"

"Now that Spyro has returned, there is a chance that I may fall, if that should happen, I want Doom to destroy Spyro and Cynder, he will avenge my defeat."

"Of course, oh mighty evil one."

"They planned this!" Doom thought in shock, "They left me locked in the deepest part of that fortress so that I would survive the impact, then when I escaped something Daedalus left in my brain activated and made me want to kill Cynder." Doom could hardly believe he'd been so naive as to think everything had been pure luck. "I am NOT going to be a tool of revenge, I have a chance for a new life, and I am not going to waste it by being a soldier of Malefor." He looked down at Cynder, she was staring at with a look of fear and uncertainty. He knew what he had to do.

Doom tensed, Spyro looked away, he couldn't bear to watch this, then there was a soft 'clink', Spyro looked back and saw that Cynder was completely unharmed, Doom was standing in front of her, just staring at her with a sad look on his face, then Spyro noticed that the sphere he was trapped in was gone. Spyro readied himself to attack but was stopped when he heard Doom speak. "I.. Forgive you... Cynder." He said, then he suddenly screamed in pain, rearing back on his hind legs and grasping at his head, then he fell down.

"What's happening to me?" Doom thought as he lye there, unable to move, his HUD showing his systems going offline. Then three figures entered his vision, Spyro and Cynder, both of them looking down at him with worried looks on there faces, though Spyro seemed like he was debating whether or not he should try and rip Dooms head off. The third figure was Daedalus, who looked down at Doom with a frustrated look on his face, "Oh, you always have make things difficult." He said, and then Doom paced out.

Didn't see that coming now did ya, Happy New Years folks, please R&R.


	4. Chapter 4

TLoS: Shadow of Doom

Chapter 3

Dooms left eye slowly began to open, his right eye turning from a lifeless black to its regular red color as he returned to consciousness, "Uh, my head." He thought, "I feel like I lost a fight with an avalanche." His vision started to clear and he became more aware of his surroundings, then he realized that he was in a cage and his blood turned to ice. "NO, PLEASE, NOT AGAIN!" He screamed, shielding himself with his wings and creating an energy sphere around himself. "NO MORE, PLEASE, NO MORE TORTURE, NO MORE EXPERIMENTS, I'VE SUFFERED ENOUGH!"

"Calm down Doom," a voice said, Doom looked down and saw Spyro, Cynder, and the guardians looking up at him "No one here wants to hurt you." Terrador said,

"You'll forgive me if I don't believe you, but in my experience waking up in a dungeon doesn't bring a very happy future." Doom shot back, staring at Cynder, he'd gotten rid of Daedalus's revenge program so he didn't feel the irresistible urge to rip her head off, he'd forgiven her for what she'd done, but he still wanted to make her sting a little. Unfortunately he'd forgotten about how protective Spyro was, though he remembered when an earth blast hit the cage,"I'm sorry!" He cried, covering his head with his paws,

"Just remember that." Spyro growled,

"Spyro, that's enough." Cynder said, doing her best to force her way through the crowd with her stiff movements, "He's scared out of his mind and being tortured by his past, and I seem to remember you being nice to people like that!"

"Cynder, this guy was trying to kill you a few hours ago." Spyro said, shocked at her defending Doom. "This is different."

"Why, because its me he was trying to kill, I told you what I did to him, you can SEE what I did to him, tell me you don't understand him wanting to kill me after that!"

"I never wanted to kill you." Doom said,

"Could've fooled me." Spyro said agitatedly,

"Give me a chance to explain myself, my actions were not my own!" Doom pleaded,

Spyro looked back at the guardians, who nodded there approval, "Alright Doom," Spyro said, "We'll give you a chance, but if I don't like your answer, then your done."

"Spyro!" Cynder gasped, she'd never seen him this angry.

"I didn't want to kill Cynder, Daedalus left something in my brain that made me want to kill her but when Cynder made me doubt myself, I realized what was going on I decided that revenge wasn't worth it if it meant I was still a servant of the Dark Master, I have a chance at a new life now and I am not going to waste it by being a soldier of revenge."

"You think that's going to get you out of this?" Spyro said,

"What, so you'll let me off easy but not him?" Cynder asked,

"No that's the point," Spyro said, "He knows that you were being controlled so he's trying to use that to get out of this."

"That's enough of this Spyro." Terrador said, "Your letting your emotions cloud your judgement."

"This guy attacks the temple, nearly kills Cynder, beats the hell out of you, and everyone is defending him!" Spyro shouted in frustration.

"Give me some time alone with him." Cynder said, causing everyone to stare at her in shock.

"Are you nuts?" Spyro said, Cynder just looked away, a hurt look on her face. "Cynder, I didn't mean it like that."

"You should go, Spyro, just go and give me some time alone with him."

Spyro tried to say something else but Terradore placed a talon on his shoulder and motioned for him to leave the room with the other guardians, Spyro followed him out, doing his best to hold back the tears.

"Whatever she says to me, whatever she does to me, I have to take it," Doom thought, "She can't fly because of what I did to her, hell she can barely move because of me, whatever happens, it will be no less than I deserve." Then Dooms heard the sound of the cage unlocking, he looked up and saw Cynder using her wind element to lift the key into the lock and open the door. "Impressive." Doom said, doing his best to sound friendly.

"Thanks, I've had a lot of time to practice." Cynder replied, speaking in her own awkward, friendly tone as she opened the door. Doom jumped out of the cage, eager to return to freedom, just being in that thing for a short time had brought back way to many unhappy memories.

"Thank you, I don't know how much longer I could have stayed in there."

"You were only awake for a few minutes."

"That was more than enough," Doom said, starring at the ground. "Much more than enough."

"I'm sorry." Cynder said looking away. "For everything."

"Don't apologize to me." Doom said, "You weren't yourself, YOU never truly meant for anything to happen to me."

"But look at yourself, how can you forgive me after what happened to you!"

Doom couldn't help but smirk, "Because you were not yourself, your mind was corrupted, the Cynder that had this done to me is dead and buried, the one in front of me truly regrets what she did, and that makes you worthy of forgiveness, more than I will ever be."

"Thank you." Cynder said, tears forming in her eyes, "That was very insightful."

"Wisdom is born of pain I suppose." Doom said, "If any thing, I should be the one apologizing,"

"You don't need to apologize, it's like you said, your actions weren't your own-ah!" Cynder was cut off by a gasp of pain,

"Are you alright?" Doom asked,

"It's just my back, it hurts sometimes." Cynder was cringing in agony.

"This isn't right," Doom grumbled, "Everyone has a curse Cynder, yours is your past, Spyros is his inner darkness, mine is my own body, but no one deserves two curses." The cables extended out of Doom shoulder "Especially you."

"What are you doing with those things?" Cynder asked, nervously backing away.

"You said you trusted me, let me prove you right." Doom replied, Cynder looked doubtful but then she stepped forward and Dooms cables attached themselves to her back, his HUD gave him several detailed images of her damaged spine. "Let's see if I can do this to someone other than myself." Doom thought as he set to work repairing Cynders injured back, becoming completely oblivious of his surroundings.

"Hey Cynder," Spyro said, slowly opening the door, "Are you- huh." He gasped, seeing Doom with his cables plugged into Cynders back, "Let her go Doom, or I swear your gonna be begging me to kill you when I'm done!" He growled, then Dooms cables retracted.

"Alright, I'm done" he said to Cynder,

"Oh, your done alright!" Spyro roared as he tackled Doom, pinned him to the wall, and brought his tail blade up to the cyborg dragons throat.

"SPYRO, STOP!" Cynder shouted, leaping at the purple dragon and knocking him off of Doom, "He was trying to help me!"

"Cynder, you just moved, normally!" Spyro said, tears of joy forming in his eyes, Cynder stepped off him and moved her arm back and forth in front of her face, tears formed as she saw it moving at normal speed. "How did this happen?" Spyro asked.

"I did that." Doom said, rubbing his throat and bringing up a hologram to show how he'd healed Cynder. "I left a small device in your back, it will allow you to function while your body heals, and when your done healing it will just dissolve into nothingness." Doom explained, using the hologram to help them understand. "I've had to give myself similar implants as of late, so it should be completely safe."

"Aren't you half metal?" Spyro asked,

"Maybe a little more than half, but don't worry, there is no way that thing an cause any real damage, worst case she winds up like she was before and I just put in another one."

"Still think we can't trust him, Spyro?" Cynder asked,

"Alright Doom, I trust you." Spyro said somewhat grudgingly,

"Thank you." Doom said, turning to leave,

"But remember this." Spyro placed his paw on Dooms shoulder, the cyborg dragon turned his head and looked at Spyro with his mechanical eye, giving the purple dragon an emotionless stare. "You take one step back," Spyros voice grew deeper, his eyes were turning white and his scales black, a thin cloud of smoke began to form around his body, "Put one foot on the road to who you once were," Spyros transformation continued, "You make me think that there's a chance that your going to hurt my friends."

"Spyro, calm down!" Cynder cried, only able to watch as Dark Spyro began to rear his ugly head.

"And I don't care how close we are, I WILL end you then and there." Spyros transformation was complete, Dark Spyro stared at Doom menacingly with his pure white eyes, Doom countered by meeting his gaze with his red, mechanical eye. The two of them held each others gaze, as if they were trying to see who would yield first.

"Spyro, snap out of it!" Cynder shouted, and to her relief Spyro began to change back to normal, but when the reverse transformation was complete Spyro didn't seem confused or disoriented like usual, he was still holding Dooms gaze, it was almost as if he'd LET his dark side out just to make a point! Suddenly, Doom shook his head and a look of confusion filled his face.

"What just happened?" He asked, sounding exhausted.

"Spyro, what did you do?" Cynder asked.

"Nothing, I just gave him a stare down that's all." Spyro replied, taking his paw off Dooms shoulder.

"Are you okay Doom." Cynder asked as his head started waving back and forth in an exhausted manner.

"Healing you took a lot out of me, I need to get some rest." He said,

"Come on Spyro, I think he's gonna need a better place to sleep than a cage under the temple. And besides I need some time to yell at you for letting your dark side out to win a damned staring contest!"

"Fine, will see of the guardians will give him a room." Spyro groaned

"Thank you, both of you." Doom said as he stumbled after them to where the guardians and Sparx were waiting in the hall, "I know we haven't gotten off to the best start but at least no ones hurt any more."

"Ahem." Cyril cleared his throat but didn't say anything,

"What's wrong with him?" Doom asked,

"He hasn't been able to talk since you zapped him earlier." Volteer said,

"Oh, yeah, that, don't worry, that'll were off in a couple hours, in the meantime though, I suggest we all enjoy fortunes favor." Everyone broke out laughing, except for Cyril, who only let out an annoyed groan.

**Sorry it took me so long but I suck when it comes to chapters that don't have any fighting in them so this one took me a while to plan, plus since schools come back around, my update speed might slow a little. But anyhow please enjoy this chapter, I put some work into trying to show the softer side of Doom.**


	5. Chapter 5

TLoS: Shadow of Doom

Chapter 4

Doom snapped awake, panting heavily. "Not again." He thought agitatedly, the guardians had agreed to give him a room, but every time Doom fell asleep he found himself lost in nightmares, reliving the horrors of his past, and it was happening a lot. "This is the fifth time in the past half-hour!" He groaned, wanting to just get a decent nights sleep so he would recharge a little. Doom rolled onto his back, hoping to find a more comfortable position, and groaning as his sore body protested every movement, "Terradore hits hard when he's pissed off." Doom thought, although he'd patched all of his broken bones with additional cybernetics, similar to the one he'd used on Cynder, they still hurt. As he was shifting position, for the umpteenth time, something caught his eye, he looked up, and felt fear shoot through his spine like lightening as he saw the ape standing in front of him, scalpel in hand.

"DAEDALUS!" Doom screamed, his instincts took over and he swung his mechanical arm at the ape, only to watch him disappear into a cloud of smoke. Doom shook his head in disbelief, calculating the odds. He knew Daedalus was dead, He'd killed him himself, he'd seen the body, the odds were 97.06% that he was just freaking out. "Still, might as well take a look around." He mumbled through his chattering teeth, hoping to calm his frayed nerves.

Doom walked slowly through the halls of the temple, every scanner and alarm he had set on a hair-trigger. "No one is sneaking up on me." Doom thought, trying, unsuccessfully to calm himself. His heart was racing, his scales felt like they where crawling, sweat drenched his body, his blood was boiling, and with each breath it felt like his lungs froze. But the thing that proved that he was truly horrified was the fact that he was so busy trying to stay calm he wasn't paying attention to his scanners, which were screaming warnings about the figure walking up behind him.

"Doom"

Reacting purely on instinct, Doom swung his tail blade at the source of the voice behind him, then, he recognized the voice and managed to stop his blow, he looked back and saw his tail was less than a half inch from taking Cynders head off. "Cynder! I'm sorry, I didn't-" and that's all he got time to say before Spyro tackled him, pinned him to the wall, and raised his tail blade to Dooms throat.

"I warned you-" Spyros voice trailed off as he noticed the fear in Dooms eyes, "Hey, Doom," he said as he lowered his blade and let go of the mortified dragon. "Are you okay?"

"Twice in one day," Doom grumbled, rubbing his neck, "that has got to be some kind of record."

"Doom, are you alright?" Spyro asked again, he'd never seen anyone that scared before.

"Yeah," Doom said, starring at the ground. "Yeah I'm fine, just... Jumping at shadows. I'll be okay, just need to get some sleep." He turned to leave, but Cynder blocked him.

"Don't lie, Doom. One, your no good at it. And two, fears one of my elements, I can tell something has you scarred to death." She said, "Trying to hide from it won't help, just tell us."

"Okay." Doom replied, trying to find the right word to explain it. "It's just, I keep having these dreams, each time I fall asleep I find myself back at the fortress, reliving the experiments, the amputations, the... Agony." his voice was filled with sorrow. "No matter what I try, I always wake up chained to that table, Daedalus cutting something off or ripping something out." His voice started getting angrier. "I just don't understand it, I'm free now, it's finally over, the past is the past, but I still feel like there's something I should be worried about, why is it that there's some part of me-?" Dooms voice trailed off and he caught his reflection in his metal leg, "ARGGH!" He roared, smashing a hole in the wall afore mentioned limb.

"Was that really necessary?" Cynder asked as the last of the debris bounced off her wing.

"No, but it sure as hell felt good." Doom sighed, "Really, I'm fine, my power levels just low. It's making me a little jumpy, and short tempered." Doom walked around Cynder, she didn't try to stop him. "I'm gonna try and get some sleep, good night guys."

Spyro and Cynder just stood there in total silence, after a few moments Cynder finally spoke up. "You don't really believe-" Spyro just shook his head "Yeah, me neither." Cynder replied, they immediately headed to Dooms room, were the Cyborg dragon was already asleep, tossing, turning and begging for the pain to stop.

"Poor guy," Spyro said, he didn't trust Doom any farther than he could throw him, which probably wasn't very far with all his metal parts, but he didn't think that Doom deserved this. "I wonder what's happening in there."

"From what I can remember, which isn't much, he's been through more in ten years than anyone should go through in there life." Cynder said, "No one deserves this, especially not some poor kid I grabbed from the mountains." Cynder walked over to him, beginning to glow red.

"What are you doing?" Spyro asked,

"I've been meaning to try this for awhile." Cynder said, "Maybe my fear element is good for something other than scaring the life out of people."

"Please, make it stop." Doom mumbled in his sleep, tears coming out of his left eye.

"Don't worry." Cynder whispered, "It's almost over." Cynder inhaled, and a red energy cloud began drifting off of Doom and into her mouth, she cringed in pain but kept going until the last wisps of energy went down her throat. Cynder began panting heavily and would've fell if Spyro hadn't caught her, "Aww, the pain." Cynder groaned, "I was wrong, he went through more in one hour than anyone should in there whole life."

"What just happened?" Spyro asked,

"I used my power to absorb his fear." Cynder explained, trying to get up from Spyros shoulder, unsuccessfully, "I just didn't think that when I absorbed it, I'd experience it."

"Please don't ever do that again." Spyro said, nuzzling her, "It's not worth it."

"No." Cynder said looking at Doom, who was now sleeping peacefully, "It was worth it, with all that happened to him because of me, giving him a goodnight sleep is the least I could do." And with that they walked out of the room, Cynder still leaning on Spyro for support, even though secretly she had recovered from draining Dooms fear.

The next morning

"Doom!"

Doom ignored the voice and continued sleeping,

"DOOM!"

Doom kept ignoring it,

"Wake up you walking pile of scrap steel!"

"WOAH!" Doom shouted as he fell out of bed, he looked up and saw Cynder staring down at him, "Good morning to you too." He said, rubbing his head, "Would it have killed you to just shake me until I woke up?"

"Well you overslept, and seeing how the guardians wanted to test your abilities today, I figured we were pressed for time." She said with a sly smile.

"Yeah, thanks that was just what I needed." Doom said sarcastically,

"Then why are you complaining?" Cynder asked with the same cocky smile.

"I wasn't thanking you for scaring me out of bed, I was thanking you for sucking the nightmares out of me." Doom almost broke out laughing as the smirk on Cynder face was replaced with a look of shock and confusion.

"How do you know about that?" She asked,

"I'm never fully asleep," Doom replied, "The mechanical half of my brain is still aware of my surroundings and what happens while I'm asleep." Cynders mouth just hung open, "It's really useful, I can't be caught off guard, although I'm not certain how its possible for me to have nightmares though." Doom concluded, "Cynder, I understand your shocked but could you please close your mouth, your starting to drool." Doom said with the same sly smile Cynder had recently had.

"Alright, wise guy." Cynder groaned, turning to leave, "Lets go."

"I still don't see why the guardians need to see what I can do." Doom said as they walked to the training room. "Don't they still have large collections of bruises from when I fought them?"

"Are you honestly saying that you used every trick you have in just two fights?" Cynder asked,

"To be fair, I still don't know every trick I have, I never got the chance to test the full extent of my power." Doom replied,

"Hey, you hear that?" Cynder said as they walked past a large sealed door. Doom enhanced his hearing to five times normal strength, he could faintly hear the sound of Spyro talking to the guardians on the other side of the door, Doom continued to enhance his hearing until at was fifteen times normal, and he still didn't hear what was happening inside the room, though he could hear Sparx snoring on the other side of the temple just fine.

"DO YOU HEAR ANYTHING?" Cynder asked,

"YOW!" Doom cried in shock, lowering his hearing down to half it's natural strength, "Be careful, I magnified my hearing so I could figure out what they were saying, and you just blew my ear drums out."

"Sorry." Cynder said, a hurt look on her face,

"Don't worry about it, whoever built that door built it so that even with jumped up hearing you can't eavesdrop on the people inside." Doom said apologetically, trying to sound calm despite the fact that his ears were still ringing.

"So you didn't learn anything?"

"Only that Sparx snores like a sleeping bear."

Then Cynders face lit up, "I know another way in!" She said gleefully,

"Hey wait-" Cynder ran off before Doom could finish, "I should've broken her leg, not her back." Doom thought as he took off after her, she ran out side the temple then flew around to a large window in the gardens. "Cynder, don't you think that if the guardians wanted to talk to Spyro about this in a nearly sound-proofed room than maybe we shouldn't be-"

"Shh! I can't hear them." Cynder cut him off, Doom just gave up and decided to listen in.

"-I know you may feel conflicted about this Spyro, few people were closer to Ignitus than you, but the sooner we are able to find his replacement, the better." Terrador said, his voice was heavy with sorrow.

"Alright, when do I leave?" Spyro said, it sounded like he'd been crying recently.

"Your going to have to slip away sometime later today, perhaps while we're assessing Doom, but you must tell no one, not even Cynder."

"That might be difficult, Cynder knows me well enough that she can tell when I'm keeping secrets, but don't worry, Sparx will most likely be asleep the rest of the day and I don't trust Doom enough to tell him what I had for breakfast." There was a slight edge to Spyros voice as he finished,

"That hurt a little." Doom thought, wishing there was something he could do to prove himself to Spyro.

"I'll leave as soon as I can." Spyro said.

"Oh no you don't, purple boy!" Cynder shouted, stepping into view.

"What are you doing?" Doom whispered, Cynder just grabbed his shoulders and pulled him put of his hiding place, "OWW, why would you do that?" He said, then he noticed the guardians, and Spyro, looking at them with surprised looks on there faces, "I swear this was her idea!" Doom said.

"Your not going on any secret mission without me." Cynder continued, walking up toward Spyro. "Why don't you want me going with you anyway?"

"Talk to them." Spyro said nervously, gesturing toward the guardians.

"What's going on here anyway?" Doom asked, cautiously stepping into the room.

"Alright, we might as well tell you now instead of later." Terrador said, "With the death of Ignitus, it has become necessary for us to find a new fire guardian, and so an ancient ritual must be performed, four dragons must travel to the four ancient temples of the elements and activate the sigils sealed there."

"What are the temples of the elements?" Doom asked,

"They are ancient temples said to be built on the very spots were the ancestors learned to control each of the four main elements." Volteer said, "When the sigils are activated the ancestors will give the three of us a dream that will reveal the identities of several dragon who are worthy to become the next fire guardian."

"Wait, multiple dragons I thought there'd only be one." Spyro said in confusion,

"No Spyro," Cyril said in his usual agitated tone, "It is an ancient tradition that there are multiple candidates, never less than two, never more than, ancestor forbid, thirty."

"Ah, what a hectic year that was." Terrador chuckled, "Thirty candidates and out of them all we get the one who caused the most trouble." he grinned at Volteer, who had a sheepish look on his face.

"There is definitely no way in Dante's Freezer your going without me." Cynder said,

"Hey, I wanna help to." Doom said, eager to be apart of this time honored tradition.

"Cynder, you may go with Spyro, but Doom-"

"What, you don't trust me?" Doom angrily cut Terrador off, "Don't worry, I won't do anything I'm not supposed to, but I am going to be apart of this."

"It's not that we don't trust you, but we don't fully understand your abilities-"

"Then let me show you what I can do!" Doom said, walking over to a statue of Malefor that was three times his size.

Doom dug his talons under the base of the statue, then groaned and began trying to lift it. "Doom, that's enough, it's too-" Terrador stopped as the statue began to rise off the ground, using more of his strength, Doom kept lifting, rearing back on his hind legs and holding the massive statue over his head. With a grunt he tossed it into the air and fired a plasma blast that reduced it to dust.

"Got a feel for my abilities now." Doom asked, panting heavily.

"Alright Doom." Terrador said, amazed at what he'd just witnessed, "You can go with them."

"YES! So where are we going?"

"You are going to the earth temple." Terrador replied,

"I would have thought you were going to the earth temple." Cynder said,

"No, I'm going to the fire temple, I have some... Personal business to take care of there." Terrador replied, his voice heavy with sadness

**Whooh, this was a long one, anyhow in celebration of what I'm farley sure is my longest chapter, I'm going to have a little challenge for you. The earth temple has an environmental hazard, PM me what you think it is, and if you are correct, I will reveal anything about the story you want, one free spoiler, although you must promise, on your honor as a fan fiction writer, that you will not reveal it in any way to anyone. Good luck.**


	6. Chapter 6

TLoS: Shadow of Doom

Chapter 5

"Are we there yet?" Doom asked,

"Real mature, Doom." Cynder called back,

"What can I say, I'm bored."

"Then find something to keep yourself occupied."

"That's the only reason I made it this far!"

"Then go back to whatever you were doing."

"I would, but there's only so many times I can check my weapons before I get the urge to go trigger happy." Doom chuckled,

"Can you believe this guy?" Cynder asked rhetorically, Spyro didn't answer, he hadn't said a word since they left the temple, "Spyro, are you okay?" Cynder asked,

"Yeah, it's just-" his voice trailed off for a second, "Terradore hasn't been the same since we got back, he seems depressed."

"From what I've heard, him and Ignitus were close." Doom said, "He must be taking it pretty hard."

"And you think I'm not!" Spyro snapped,

"That's not what I meant." Doom said frantically, "What I mean is that your not the only one who's taking it hard, Terrador was closer to Ignitus than the other guardians, it must be hard for him to lose someone like that."

"Yeah, it is." Spyro said, tears forming in his eyes.

"I'm sorry, I don't know exactly what your going through, but I've got a good idea what it feels like." Doom said, rubbing his metal leg. After that they continued flying in silence, it was clear that there was too much tension between Spyro and Doom for there to be any conversation that wasn't at risk of coming to blows, so they just flew in silence, heading deeper into the mountains.

As they flew through the mountains, Doom started getting strange feelings, there was a certain familiarity to this place, he could have sworn he'd been here before, then it hit him.

"Hey, I think I've been here before!" Doom said,

"Why is that important?" Spyro asked,

"Because there are only two places in my life that I've spent enough time in to remember them! Now seeing as I'm not getting another limb cut off, I'd assume this would be somewhere near where I grew up!" Doom said angrily,

"I thought you spent your life in Malefors fortress." Spyro said, shocked at Dooms sudden outburst,

"Were you listening when I told you about him or were you busy wishing you had muscles like Terrador?" Cynder chuckled,

"I think he was more interested in you than Terrador." Doom thought, smiling inward. "I might have spent most of my time in that place, but I hatched in the mountains." He said, "I never knew my parents, I grew up alone, except for the few times when traveling merchants came through." He said, "My life didn't get unpleasant until, well, you know." Cynder looked away, "I think we're almost at the Temple." Doom said, hoping to change the subject before Spyro got protective.

Turns out Doom was right, within half an hour they had found the Earth Temple, most of it was under ground, but there was a massive staircase that led up to a large set of doors with the symbol of the earth element emblazoned on them, it would have been a beautiful thing if it wasn't for the camp that the apes had set up outside the doors.

"Okay, that's gonna be a problem." Cynder said,

"We can take them." Doom said, "We just have to sneak up on them and take them out quickly and quietly."

"Could just charge them." Spyro said,

"There on top of a giant staircase and very clearly expecting dragons, a sneak attack would be better, unless you like the feeling of arrows in your side."

"Girls, your both pretty." Cynder said, causing Doom and Spyro to shoot her agitated looks, "If we're going to attack, it has to be from the air, that's are best advantage. We'll fly in, hit them with a couple elemental blasts, then we take out anyone that's left." She said, "It's a mix of both your plans, which means you shouldn't have a problem with it, right?"

"Yes." Spyro and Doom said in unison, both using the same annoyed tone.

Cynder smirked, it was fun watching those two squirm, "Good, now then, we should watch them before we attack, look for the best time to strike."

The attack was going pretty well so far, they'd swooped in and hit the apes with blasts of fire, poison and plasma, and before anyone knew what was going on Spyro, Cynder and Doom were on the ground and ripping through there lines, the fact that Doom had decided to blow up there makeshift armory only tipped the odds further in there favor. After that Doom dive-bombed an ape and ripped his throat open before he had a chance to scream, Doom turned to face five apes that were pointing there spears at him, nervous looks on there faces, "What the hell is that thing?" One of them asked, "Who cares, it's a dragon, so we kill it!" Another stated, Doom smirked, it was time to show off another weapon, a small metal sphere popped out of his wrist, he caught it and threw it at the apes, it landed in between them and exploded, killing all five. The explosions, the dragons showing up out of no were, Dooms appearance, the apes were scared out of there minds and most of them took off running, the few that stayed quickly falling before the trio of dragons, then three apes stormed out of the command tent, each carrying a massive war hammer.

Before Doom knew it there was a chunk of metal that was bigger than he was being swung at him, and that ape knew how to use it, he was blocking and striking with amazing speed and strength, every punch and scratch Doom threw at him just bouncing off the weapons handle, while Doom already had some new dents and bruises. "Your head is gonna look nice in my trophy case, ugly." The ape laughed, then Doom saw an opening and swung his arm, but he wasn't trying to hit the ape, he was lining up a shot for the knife launcher in his arm, then he fired, the knife buried itself in the apes throat, he fell over, grabbing at the knife and gurgling as he tried to catch his breath through the blood seeping into his lungs.

Doom took a few seconds to catch his breath and turned to see how Spyro and Cynder were doing, Cynders battle was going well, she easily avoiding her foes heavy war hammer and landing several blows, it was clear that she was trying to bleed him out. Spyro on the other hand was facing the same problem Doom had, he wasn't fast enough to do any damage or avoid the hammer. Before Doom could do anything, Cynder gained a permanent upper hand by using her tail-blade to cut the head off her opponents war hammer, unfortunately it went flying through the air, right toward Spyro who was too distracted by his opponent to notice the large metal brick flying at him.

"NO!" Cynder screamed, Spyro turned to see the hammer flying at him, his eyes widened and he froze, then Doom shoved him out of the way and took a steel brick in the head.

"Oh, that has got to hurt."Spyro thought as the hammer head shattered on Dooms skull. Doom just shook his head and looked to see Spyro and Cynder finishing there opponents, then running over to him.

"Are you okay?" Cynder asked,

"Yeah, sure, I'm fine, taking one for the team, ya know, love it." Doom said sarcastically, the trio walked up to the temple doors, "I don't suppose Terrador gave you a key?" Doom asked,

"Not quite." Spyro said, glowing green and using his earth element to activate the doors, which slid open with the sound of stone grinding against stone.

"Shall we go?" Cynder asked,

"Ladies first." Spyro said, Cynder punched him in the arm, "OW, sheesh, learn to take a compliment."

Doom wasn't paying attention, something wasn't right about the temple, common sense told him there was a trap waiting for them. Cautiously, Doom held out his arm, and felt it double in weight as soon as it moved through the doorway, "That's what I was afraid of." Doom thought, the gravity inside the temple was twice as strong as normal, it wasn't dangerous for normal dragons, but Dooms metal parts were heavier than his normal organic parts, his muscles had strengthened naturally to make up for the strain, that's why his left and right arms were equally strong, but if the gravity magnified to much Doom would be crushed under the weight of his own body.

"What's the matter Doom?" Spyro asked, "You look spooked, your not afraid of ghosts are you?"

"No, but I should warn you that the gravity in the temple is twice as strong as normal, it's gonna be hard to move in there." He said, hiding the fact that he could be turned into a smear on the floor if something went wrong.

**(AN: The gravity is the environmental hazard, thank you for submitting your guesses and to all those who received there spoilers, pleases remember that you are sworn on your honor as an author to reveal nothing. Thank you.)**

The trio walked into the central chamber, there was nothing in it, the floor just lowered a few feet, and in the center of the room there was a raised section of the floor with the insignia of the earth element sketched into it. "That has to be the Sigil." Cynder said, stepping onto a pressure plate,

"LOOK OUT!" Doom yelled, tackling her out of the way of a giant stone hammer that nearly turned her into a bloody mist, the two fell onto the lowered floor, "That was too close." Doom mumbled, then the Sigil sent out an energy wave, Doom felt like a massive weight had been dropped on his back, his sensors shrieked in warning, "Great, now were five times heavier." Doom said, then he noticed the floor cracking beneath them,

"Not good!" Cynder said,

"Oh, why can't my life be-" Doom didn't get a chance to finish before the floor gave way beneath them.

"CYNDER!" Spyro screamed in horror, running over to the hole, "CYNDER!"

"What am I, chopped liver and scrap metal?" Doom called up,

"Are you alright?"

"No, the fall broke my legs."

"I was talking to Cynder!"

"She's- uh, in-between a rock and a hard place."

"Meaning?"

"There's a boulder on top of her, it's on her hind legs and part of her back and I can't get it off, for obvious reasons."

"I'm coming down there!" Spyro called,

"No don't, with the gravity your to heavy to fly back out, you have to reach the Sigil and activate it to get us out."

"Anything else I should know?"

"One, there are bound to be more holes in between you and the Sigil, you might be able to use your earth element to sense them. And two, you may want to get this done quick, for two reasons."

"And they are?"

"One, the closer you get to the Sigil the more gravity will increase, making it more dangerous for Cynder to be under that boulder, and two, there are grublins down here, and they don't look happy!"

"Alright, I'll get to the Sigil." Spyro called, "Keep Cynder safe."

"I will."

"Good luck Spyro." Cynder called weakly.

"You had better not let her die Doom." Spyro thought, "If anything happens to her, I don't know what I'll do." He started walking toward the Sigil, carefully reaching out with his earth element to sense for any more giant holes, then, when he was about halfway across the room, the Sigil sent off another energy pulse.

Back to Doom and Cynder

"Ah crap!" Doom said as another energy wave washed over him,

"How heavy are we now?" Cynder asked, barely able to breath due to the weight of the boulder,

"Fif-fifteen times heavier." Doom exclaimed, he and Cynder had driven the grublins back, but they were both tired and injured, the grublins would return, in greater numbers.

"Are you alright?" Cynder asked,

"I'm, fine." Doom gasped, barely able to breath under the weight of his mechanical wings.

"Your a bad liar, remember."

"Blast." Doom thought, "She knows I'm hurting."

"The gravities affecting you, isn't it?"

"Yes, my organic body wasn't designed do carry the weight of all this metal, when the gravity increases enough its gonna crush me."

"Why didn't you tell us?"

"Because then you guys would have made me stand guard or something, I wanted to be apart of this."

Back to Spyro

"Almost, there." Spyro thought, between the enhanced gravity and the elemental drain, he was worn out

"I'm almost there, I have to make it! For Cynder!" He stepped onto the raised central platform with the Sigil on it, then there was another gravity wave.

"No!" Spyro thought,

Back to Doom and Cynder

"Dang it." Doom said as he fired a plasma blast at the approaching grublins, he could feel the gravity wave coming, and it was a big one.

Doom screamed in pain as he felt his bones began to crack under the weight of his metal parts, Cynder whimpered as the boulder threatened to crush her rear, the grublins exploded into clouds of smoke, killed by there own weight.

"Twenty five times heavier," Doom gasped as he fell onto his side, he could feel his mechanical lungs crushing themselves. "I'm done for, thanks for giving me a second chance Cynder."

"See you on the other side Doom." Cynder wheezed, barely able to breath.

Back to Spyro

"Can't... Give... Up!" Spyro groaned as he dragged himself onto the Sigil, remembering what Terrador taught him, he focused his energy into the Sigil and immediately felt gravity returning to normal, he kept the energy going, looking back at the hole were Cynder and Doom were fighting for there lives, he focused his energy into the Sigil an willed the earth at the bottom of the hole to rise until finally Cynder and Doom were back at ground level. The Sigil gave out one final burst of energy and shot a green sphere into the air, the ball of energy kept rising until it flew through the roof and vanished.

"Cynder." Spyro mumbled, stumbling off the platform over to we're the dragoness he loved was still trapped underneath a boulder. Doom began to rise, ignoring the pain from his three broken organic legs, he dragged himself over to Cynder, raised his mechanical arm and used the little strength he had left to shove the boulder off of her, "Cynder!" Spyro said as he ran over and collapsed next to her. "Cynder, please, you have to be alright, please, don't die!"

"Spyro." Cynder groaned weakly,

"Cynder." Spyro whispered, then they both passed out.

"Goodnight." Doom said before he collapsed as well.

Back at the dragon temple

"Thanks again for fixing us up Doom." Spyro said, looking down at his leg, which had been broken by the gravity of the Earth Temple.

"It was nothing, and don't worry, when your leg heals the machine I put in will dissolve into nothing."

"There was something else I wanted to say."

"What's that?" Doom asked,

"I haven't exactly been treating you well ever since you came here," Spyro said, shivering as he remembered how he'd let his dark side out during there stare down. "But you've more than proved your trustworthiness, you risked getting crushed to follow us into the Earth Temple, you saved me from taking a hammer to the head, and you kept Cynder safe from those grublins." Spyro raised his fore leg, "So, friends." Doom eagerly shook Spyros paw "Friends." He said, the three of them walked into the Grotto and saw that Volteer and Cyril had already returned.

"Have fun at the Ice Temple Cyril?" Doom asked, the ice guardian didn't respond, his teeth were chattering to much for him to speak, "WOW, it must be really cold there!" Doom exclaimed in shock, then he walked over to Volteer, "So how did things go- WOAH!" Doom screamed as he was suddenly ripped off the ground and sent flying toward the electric guardian.

"What was that?!" Spyro cried in surprise,

"Well, my mission to the electric temple was a success." Volteer said in a squeaky, high pitch voice, "Unfortunately, it would appear as though the extreme amount of electricity has charged me like a magnet."

"I can tell." Doom grumbled as he managed to pull himself away from Volteer,

"So where's Terrador?" Spyro asked,

"Right here." Terrador said as he walked into the chamber, he was covered in soot and ash and carrying a something encased in volcanic rock. "I am glad to see that you were all successful."

"Are you sure? I activated the Sigil myself and I didn't get any weird dream about who the fire candidates are." Spyro said,

"First of all, only the guardians receive the dreams." Said Terrador, "And second, we won't be receiving them until we sleep tonight, so I would suggest you get ready for tomorrow, it's going to be a long day."

"Um, Terrador, if you don't mind me asking-"

"It's a shield." Terrador said, clearly guessing Spyros question, "A shield I have had since I was child, and that I hope I will someday have the courage to look at it again." He said, his voice filled with sorrow as he looked down at the piece of rock in his paws.

"Well okay then," Sparx said, Doom hated how that dragonfly seemed to be able to pop out of nowhere, "Spyro and Doom are friends, Terradors somewhat gotten past some major emotional trouble, and soon there will be a new fire guardian! Sounds like a good day to me."

"I have a bad feeling about this." Spyro thought,

"What do you say I cook something to celebrate?" Sparx finished,

"I knew it!" Spyro shouted, "Whatever he makes, DON'T EAT IT!"

"Why not?" Doom asked, puzzled as to why Spyro seemed to be against his foster brothers cooking,

"Sparx cooking is pure poison, no one has ever been able to hold that stuff down."

"I take that as a challenge." Doom said,

"Your gonna regret it." Spyro warned him,

"Spyro, I've literally got an steel stomach." Doom said, tapping one of the plates on his abdomen with his metal leg so it made a loud clanking sound. "I think I can handle it."

Boy was he regretting that two hours later when he was puking over the edge of the temple.

"Believe me know?" Spyro asked tauntingly,

"Note to-blah-note to self," Doom groaned, doing his best to keep his diner in his stomach, "Use Sparx for-blah-for target practice whenever-blah-possible."

**This is going pretty good so far, five hundred views in under two months, I really can't believe it, and I'd like to thank everyone who's viewed or visited this story, and also, it appears that I forgot to make a dedication.**

**This story is dedicated to my dog Jenai, who was diagnosed with metastatic lung cancer on Christmas Eve of 2012 and put down on December 28 of 2012, as you can see this story was published the day before we laid her to rest. May God watch over her.**


	7. Chapter 7

TLoS: Shadow of Doom

Chapter 6

"I can't believe I'm going to see the dragon city!" Doom said for about the twelfth time. The guardians dreams had told them there were six fire guardian candidates, three were in small villages and towns scattered around the the world, the others were in Warfang. Since Spyro and Cynder already knew how to get to the dragon city, and Doom repeatedly stated that he always wanted to see Warfang, they were sent there.

"The way he's talking its like he's been waiting for this his whole life." Spyro chuckled,

"He said he was afraid of his own shadow before he got captured, maybe he wanted to go but he was too scared." Cynder replied, "Although its defiantly not going to be as pleasant as he imagined."

"Why do you think that?" Spyro asked,

"Ever notice that you don't see a lot of metal dragons running around."

"Oh, right."

"Hey, don't worry you guys." Doom said, "I know there's most likely going to be an incident when people see me, but I'm gonna do my best to enjoy my visit despite the mean looks."

"We just want you to be prepared, that's all." Spyro said as the dragon city came into view.

No surprise as soon as the three of them set down people started staring, if Sparx were there Doom would have made a bet with him over who most of them were staring at, the Legendary Purple Dragon, the Terror of the Skies, or the metal freak show.

"Hold it right there!" A voice called, the three of them turned to see an earth dragon approaching, wearing full battle armor. "You with the weird armor, I need to have a word with you."

"It's alright, he's with us." Spyro said,

"And it's not armor, it's part of me." Doom added, earning some gasps and suspicious looks from the crowd,

"What are you?" The guard asked, hostility in his voice,

"My name is Doom, and as for what I am-" he let his voice trail off as he raised his metal leg and looked at his reflection in his paw, ignoring the guard as he tensed, "The best thing I can call myself is a dragon who's had a hard life." The anger left the guards face and was replaced with understanding,

"Alright, you can go, but don't cause any trouble."

"Only if someone attacks me first." Doom promised,

"Alright." The guard said, then he turned his attention to the crowd, "Move along folks, nothing to see here, go back to your lives citizens, shows over." He called, and with that the crowd slowly began to disperse, "Good luck to the three of you."

"Okay Doom, who are we here for?" Cynder asked, Doom sighed, ever since he told her about the capabilities of his mechanical brain she'd been testing his limits, still, it would be quicker to just go with it then argue. He searched his memory and activated the recording of when the guardians told them about the candidates they were looking for.

"There are the twin brothers Blake and Drake, who spend most of there time pranking people and admiring statues of the previous fire guardians in Warfangs upper levels." Doom said, using the same words as the guardians, "And there is a dragoness named Inferna, she lives in the slums of Warfang, she has a rare birth defect that caused the a lack of development in the fingers of her right wing." Doom finished the recording, "I think you two should get the brothers, I'll go look for Inferna." Doom suggested,

"I don't think it's a good idea for you to go off alone." Spyro said, "Besides, if you want to get a good view of Warfang, you going to want to see the upper levels."

"You two work better together than you do with me, and you've been to the cities upper level, you to handle the twins, I'll find the dragoness." Doom said, he knew he'd have time to see Warfang later, and he hoped that giving Spyro and Cynder some time alone then maybe they'd be able to see how much they cared about each other,

"Are you sure?" Cynder asked,

"Yeah, it'll be faster this way, and I can see Warfang another time." Doom said, "Don't worry, I won't get into any trouble."

"Alright, we'll meet you back at the temple." Spyro said as he and Cynder walked off, Doom chuckled as the two moved closer to each other while they walked, how they didn't know they were in love was a total mystery to him, then again, he'd never been in love.

Warfang Slums

"How can this hell hole be a part of Warfang?" Doom thought, the slums were an assault on his senses, the place looked, smelled, and sounded horrible, and it left a foul taste in his mouth. He pushed the thought out of his head and was about to go back to focusing on tracking the fire guardian candidate when something caught his ear.

"Your pathetic, you know that!" Then there was the sound of someone grunting as they were punched, a female someone.

"I wonder." Doom thought, he glanced around the corner and saw four electric dragons taunting a dragoness, she was about his age, bright red scales, two small horns on each side of her head, her tail-blade was shaped like an arrowhead, she was wearing a necklace with small wooden carving of a dragons fang on it, though the most interesting thing was her wings, her left wing was normal, but her right wing was missing its fingers and membranes. "Matches the description perfectly." Doom thought, then one of the dragons punched her in the face, "Did you hear me? Your pathetic, not to mention a deformed freak, I really don't see why they don't just get rid of you Inferna." He hit her again,

Doom let out a low growl, he understood someone getting beat up in a place like this, but a dragoness who wasn't even fighting back was going too far, and judging from the fact she was covered in bruises and electrical burns, this happened a lot, the only reason he didn't try to kill those guys was because he'd promised the guard he wouldn't cause trouble unless someone hit him first, so he had to, grudgingly, sit back and watch. "They should just find a hole somewhere and toss you in it, lock you up like the monster you are!"

"You want to see a real monster," Doom called, stepping out from his hiding place, "Take a look over here!" The heads of all five dragons snapped over in Dooms direction, there mouth hung open and there eyes filled with fear,

"Hey, listen man." The apparent leader of the electric dragons said, "I don't know why your here, but there is no way we have anything to do with it."

"Then get out of my way." Doom said, he turned to Inferna, "Are you Inferna?" He asked,

"Y-yes." She replied,

"My name is Doom," her eyes widened, "The guardians sent me-"

"So those old men finally decided to get rid of this pathetic, freak excuse of a dragon." One of the electric dragons cut in, clearly recovering from the shock of Dooms appearance,

"Shut up. Inferna, did you have a strange dream last night?" Doom asked,

"Yeah, I saw some old ice dragon dragon but that was it." She replied,

"Then you are the one I was sent here for. Inferna, yesterday the guardians performed a ritual that would reveal the identities of dragons worthy to become the next fire guardian, and that dream is a sign that you are one of them."

"WHAT?! You have got to be kidding!"

"No, I'm not. Inferna, you are a candidate to become the next fire guardian."

"Wow, I-I can't believe it," then she looked over at the electric dragons, "Well, Volt, looks like your finally getting rid of me." She seemed to change when she said that, there was strength in her voice and a fire in her eyes,

"Yeah, good riddance, just don't forget to give me something to remember you by." The gang leader, Volt, shot back, then Inferna punched him in the nose,

"There you go, remember that the next time you think of beating someone up, asshole." She said, shocking everyone with her sharp tongue,

"So the rats got teeth huh," Volt said, rubbing blood off his nose, "That wasn't quite what I was thinking of," then faster than anyone could see, he grabbed Infernas necklace and ripped it off, "This is more like it." He said, staring down at the small piece of wood,

"GIVE THAT BACK RIGHT NOW, OR I'LL-"

"Oh, I don't think you'll be doing anything." Volt said, electricity began crackling in his other hand, he held the necklace threateningly above the sparks,

"STOP!" Inferna cried, she suddenly seemed to shrink, courage leaving her body, defeat filled her voice, the fire in her eye snuffed out and replaced by fear, "please don't, just give it back, I'll do anything." The electricity in Volts claw dissipated, there was an unsettling gleam in his eye, "Anything?" Volt asked in a sinister voice,

"Alright, that's going way to far!" Doom said, "Give her the necklace back or I'm gonna break something, more specifically, you!"

Volt just chuckled, "Listen metal mouth, since your working with the guardians I'll let off with a warning, don't mess with us."

"You know what, I was wrong," Doom growled, "You don't need to look at me to see a monster, all you have to do is look in a damn mirror!"

"Jumper, show this ugly piece of metal who's in-charge." Volt said,

"Sure thing boss." One of the other dragons said, then he sunk his talons into Dooms shoulder and sent an electric current into him, "You feel that?" Jumper asked, "That's thousands of volts of electricity ripping through your nerves, it's the most painful thing you'll ever feel!"

Doom just chuckled, "Pain is one of my oldest friends," he said, "If you think this is the worst I've ever felt, then your sorely mistaken." Then he grabbed Jumper and threw him into a wall. "Who's next?"

"Taser, put this crazy beast down."

The next dragon, Taser, blasted Doom with a bolt of electricity, Doom could feel his muscles locking up, "So he's trying to paralyze me." Doom thought, "Lets see how he handles this." Doom extended the cables in his shoulder, grabbed Taser, and threw him into the still recovering Jumper.

"Bolt, take his breath away."

"Sure thing bro." The last dragon said, then he started running circles around Doom, creating a vacuum.

Doom wasn't worried in the slightest, he timed Bolts movement, then grabbed him while he was making another pass, "I'm guessing you know what happens now." Doom said, Bolt just nodded yes and Doom threw him into Taser and Jumper. "You ready to go?" Doom asked Volt,

"Yeah, I'm ready to go alright." Volt said as he tried to make a run for it, Doom just trapped him in an energy sphere.

"Your pathetic, you harass and assault some girl who doesn't even fight back, then when things get rough you hide behind your gang, then when that fails you run away, tail between your legs." Doom reached into the sphere and grabbed Infernas necklace, "You disgust me." Doom said, then he electrified the inside of the sphere and knocked Volt out cold. "I believe this is yours." Doom said, handing Inferna her necklace.

"Thanks." She said, quickly tying the string back around her neck, then rubbing the wooden dragon fang against her chest, "It's about time someone put those assholes in there place."

"So are you ready to go? I'm sure you want to say goodbye to your family."

"I don't have one, not anymore." Inferna mumbled, "So how far to the temple?"

"Actually, I'm going to have to carry you there." Doom replied,

"Why?"

"Well, seeing as how you can't- ya know." Doom gestured to her wing stump,

"Oh, yeah, right." Inferna said, "Well, lets go."

Doom lifted into the air, then gently wrapped his arms around Inferna. "Too tight?" He asked,

"Don't worry about it, I'm tougher than I look." She replied.

"Yeah, I guessed that much." Doom chuckled.

**Well, things are certainly getting interesting now aren't they, a new fire guardian, a mystery from Terradors past, and a necklace that apparently means a lot to one young dragoness, what more could you ask for?**

**Just a quick warning, the next few chapters may be a little shorter than usual.**


	8. Chapter 8

TLoS: Shadow of Doom

Chapter 7

"WOW! I've heard a lot of stories about the Dragon Temple, but I don't remember anything about it FLOATING!" Inferna said as Doom set down at the main entrance,

"That's because it's a recent addition, Spyro thought it would be safer if it was in a place only dragons could reach, and seeing how there's plenty of room in the sky, seemed like a pretty good place." Doom chuckled,

"So, where is everybody? Shouldn't the other candidates or the guardians be here?"

"Actually, it looks like there on there way." Doom said, noticing ten silhouettes on the horizon, then he remembered why he had a problem making friends, "I should probably hide somewhere." He said,

"Why? You have a problem with one of the other candidates or something?"

"I don't know if you've noticed, but I have metal fused into me." Doom said, "And in my experience, people tend to try and kill me as soon as they notice that."

"Alright, but now we have the problem of explaining how I got up here." Inferna replied, shaking her wing stump to help make her point,

"If anyone asks, just tell them I thought it was better to wait until they finished the introductions." Doom replied, hiding in the shadow of a large statue as the guardians, candidates, Spyro, and Cynder landed,

"Oh, she's already here." Spyro said when he saw Inferna, "Looks like I owe you a sheep, Volteer."

"He did not honestly think I got lost, did he?" Doom thought,

"I told you he wouldn't get lost." Volteer said, Doom made a mental note to put something in Spyros food later,

"Wait, if your here," Spyro said, asking the question Doom knew was inevitable, "Then where's-"

"He said it would be better to wait until after the introductions." Inferna said, giving a quick nod to the statue Doom was hiding behind,

"Well then, on with the introductions." Terrador said, catching the hint.

"Oh, me first, me first!" One of the candidates called out eagerly, Terradore gave him a nod, "I'm Blake, and this is my twin brother, Drake." He said, gesturing at the dragon standing next to him, "If you have trouble telling us apart, just remember I'm the handsome one."

"Energetic little guy." Doom thought, the twins looked almost exactly like Spyro, except they were red and brown instead of purple and gold, and Drake had a large scar over his left eye that looked like a claw mark,

"And I'm the one who actually looks tough." Drake shot back, rubbing his brothers head, clearly he was the more mature of the two,

"I might not look tough, but at least I still look good." Blake countered,

"Uh, yeah, remind me, which one of us has actually had a girlfriend?" Drake replied, Blake just blushed and a few of the candidates chuckled,

"Alright, let's move on," Terradore said, gesturing to the next candidate, he had black scales, but they weren't the bright obsidian color that Cynder and Doom had, they were a dark, non-reflective, smokey color, his tail blade looked like a short sword, his horns were similar to Cynders but the bottom two looked more like tusks, extending just past his jaw, his wings were razor-edged, but the shocking thing was that the kid was so thin Doom could count his ribs,

"Huh, did you ask me something?" The candidate said, he'd been starring into space the whole time, oblivious to the world,

"What's your name?" Cyril said bluntly,

"Oh, right, I'm Coal." The candidate replied in a distracted voice, then he returned to starring into oblivion, leaving more than one dragon spooked,

"Okay, moving on." Terrador said, the next candidate was the same red and brown color as Blake, Drake, and Inferna, he had a tail-blade like Coals, his horns were curled like a rams, and he had an air of confidence around him,

"I am not going to like this guy." Doom thought,

"My name is Fireball," the candidate said in a fierce voice, "And the rest of you are better off just flying away now, because when this is done, I'm gonna be the next fire guardian!"

"I was right, I don't like him." Doom thought, if he was lucky talks with this guy would leave him slightly less agitated then a talk with Cyril,

Terrador turned to the next candidate, "And your name is?"

"EXPLOSION!" The candidate shouted, this guy had bright yellow scales, a tale-blade like a double-bladed axe, and his horns were needle-like spikes that went from his tail to his forehead, making it look like he had a wicked mohawk, he also had a crazed look in his eyes. "All you need to know about me is that I like to make things go KA-BOOM!"

"And our final candidate." Terrador said, raising his voice for the benefit of those partially deafened by Explosions outburst.

"I'm Inferna, not much more to tell." Inferna replied, Fireball groaned, "You have something you wanna say, tough guy?"

"I didn't think there'd be a candidate that was a girl." Fireball said, ignoring the hostile glares from his peers,

"Bite me jackass." Inferna shot back, Doom chuckled at the reactions of the other dragons to Infernas harsh response, even Coal took notice of her tongue.

"WOAH, what happened to your wing?" Blake suddenly blurted out as he noticed Infernas deformity, then Drake punched him in the gut, "Stop starring!" Drake scolded,

"Anyhow, I believe it is time we introduced ourselves," Terrador said "I am Terrador, guardian of earth." He gestured to Cyril, "This is Cyril, the guardian of ice." Then he turned to Volteer, "And this is Volteer, guardian of electricity." He paused for a second then walked behind Spyro and Cynder, "I'm certain you've all heard of Spyro, the legendary purple dragon." Then he paused so the candidates could take a second to admire Spyro,

"SHOWOFF!" Doom thought as he saw Spyro shift position so that more of his purple scales faced the candidates,

"And this is Cynder." Terrador continued, Fireball let out a threatening growl and settled into a fighting stance, "What's SHE doing here?!"

"You don't need to worry she's not who she was before." Volteer said, trying to defuse the situation,

"I'm not here to cause trouble." Cynder said calmly, trying to reassure them.

"Well where I come from, when your enemies are defeated you either lock them up-" he let out a blast of fire that dissipated less then an inch from Cynders face, "-Or end them!"

Cynder hadn't even flinched, "Bad move." She said, then she tackled Fireball, pinned him to the ground, and raised her tail-blade to his throat, "See, if I wanted to kill you-" She put her paw on his throat, causing him to choke, "-You'd be dead already."

"That put him in his place." Doom thought,

"So, is that everyone?" Fireball asked as Cynder let him up,

"Not quite." Terrador said, glancing at the statue where Doom was hiding,

"Moment of truth." Doom thought, he could feel his gut doing backflips,

"Doom, stop skulking in the shadows and come out here!"

The moment Doom stepped into view the candidates reacted, Blake jumped backward, fear in his eyes, Drake growled and stepped protectively in front of his brother, Explosion and Fireball settled into fighting stances, Coal seemed to stir from his comatose state, he looked more interested then scared, "You called, Terrador." Doom said, doing his best to smile despite the group of angry dragons in front of him,

"What is that thing!?" Fireball shouted,

"My name is Doom," the cyborg dragon replied, though hearing his name didn't seem to settle anyone's nerves, "And I'm not here to hurt anyone."

"So that's how Inferna got up here!" Coal said, drawing everyone's attention, "It's been driving me crazy, I went over every possibility in my head as to how she got up here without flying, and I couldn't think of anything. You carried her, didn't he?"

"Your pretty smart." Doom said, if Coal had been putting as much thought into that as he claimed, then he had one serious brain in his head, everyone looked at Inferna,

"He flew me up here, you can trust him." She said,

"I second that, stand down hothead." Coal said, directing the comment at Fireball,

"Watch your mouth skinny!" Fireball roared back, lighting himself on fire, Coal still had that calm, unemotional look on his face

"You wanna go a couple rounds?" Coal said, suddenly spinning and turning himself into a whirling disk of fire and blades. Fireball roared and charged, then as the two made contact the flames vanished, revealing that Coal had expertly blocked Fireballs strike by catching his horns using his tusks.

Fireball stared at Coal with a stunned look on his face, unable to except that his attack had been blocked so easily, especially by some scrawny wimp. "Here's some wisdom from my village." Coal stated, twisting Fireballs head to the point that Doom thought he might actually snap his neck, "Never underestimate an opponent. Race, gender, physical stature, in the end it doesn't matter, they can kick your butt no matter who or what they are." Then he flipped his head around and sent Fireball flying, he immediately got back up turned toward Coal, ready to attack.

"That's enough, both of you stand down NOW!" Terrador roared, Fireball grudgingly shifted out his fighting stance, Coal returned to his distant, near comatose state.

"Now I want the two of you to shake paws and make up." The two dragons shook paws, Fireball with a massive scowl on his face, Coal with his usual blank expression. "Now if everyone is done acting like hatchlings, Doom is completely trustworthy, he accompanied Spyro and Cynder to complete an important part of the ritual that allowed us to find you all, and there was an extreme risk to his health in doing so, if there is anyone who disagrees I would advise you to keep it to yourselves." The candidates un-tensed and seemed to try and get used to Doom, though no one tried to talk to him, except Inferna.

"Don't worry." She said, hoping to reassure him, "They'll warm up to you, just show them your a regular dragon."

"Kinda hard when you look like me." He replied, and he wasn't joking, he knew he'd never have a normal life, but he at least wanted people to give him a chance,

"Hey, cheer up." Spyro said, managing to get some distance from Blake and Explosion, "All you have to do is be yourself and don't try to hard."

"Spyros right." Cynder said, "I know what it's like to have people jump to conclusions about you, just show them that your not what you think you are and you'll be fine." Doom thought about it for a moment, maybe they were right, though now there was apart of him that really wanted to show off what he could do. Then he had an idea.

"Alright if your done getting to know each other we can get on to the tour of the temple." Volteer said, the candidates immediately began filing toward the doors,

"Hey, Spyro, Cynder, I need to talk to you real quick." Doom said,

"Can this wait until later?" Spyro asked,

"Don't worry Spyro, your fan club will still be here when we're done." Doom said, Spyro just turned red and Cynder chuckled,

"So what did you want us for?" Cynder asked,

"How do you feel about showing off for the new kids?" Doom asked,

"You can count me in." Spyro said eagerly,

"You two are so pathetic." Cynder giggled,

"So I take it you'll be joining us?" Doom said, he knew she wanted to,

"Definitely, I still owe you some bruises."

**So basically here are the candidates:**

**Blake: Fun loving jokester but he sometimes takes it to far. Largely immature since Drake defended him from the harsher parts of life growing up.**

**Drake: Though he and Blake are the same age, he's more mature, and he knows what jokes to make an which ones are best left unsaid.**

**Explosion: Though most write him off as a pyro-maniac almost instantly, he has a good heart and often tries to help others get along.**

**Fireball: A warrior all his life, even though he's the same age as the other candidates, he thinks that a lifetime of war and harsh training make him superior to his peers and often underestimates them.**

**Inferna: Only female candidate, she's lived a tough life and has the tongue to prove it, like Doom she prefers to keep her past private and her only link to it is a necklace with a wooden carving of a dragon fang on it.**

**Coal: Largely unsocial and often lost in his own world, Coal has always been a silent outsider but will always stand up for his friends and what he believes in. He has incredible brain power and is very endurant despite his thin stature.**


	9. Chapter 9

TLoS: Shadow of Doom

Chapter 8

"Alright, they'll be here in five minutes." Sparx called as he entered the the training room. Doom, Cynder, and Spyro immediately took up there positions,

"Okay, remember nothing to fancy until the candidates get here, just toss some blows around and make it look like we've been going at it for awhile." Doom said, they'd wanted to show, and what better way then to beat the heck out of each other, plus there'd been an unspoken argument over who was toughest, "Any questions?"

"Just one." Cynder said, a sinister look on her face. "Are you done talking?" And with that the arena erupted into chaos, Doom quickly leaped out of the way of an earth blast and flung a knife at Cynder, who melted it with an acid blast and sent a mini-hurricane at Doom while simultaneously turning into a smoke cloud to avoid an ice shard that Spyro shot at her, then Spyro was sent flying by a grenade that Doom hurled at him, then Doom took a shadow bolt in the leg, and so on,

"Well now, what do we have here?" Terrador asked as the guardians and candidates entered the training room,

"Just a little friendly competition." Spyro said, quickly flipping to avoid another grenade,

"Looks more like you couldn't help but show off." Volteer chuckled, "Please by all means continue."

"Well, at least now we can stop holding back." Doom said, smashing ice off his left fore leg and ducking another shadow blast,

"Good." Cynder said, then she started glowing black and let out a shadow blast that plunged the arena into darkness,

"Nice try Cynder." Doom said, "But I don't need my eyes to fight you." He activated his scanners, only to have his HUD flooded with junk data, he could barely tell which way was up. "What the-" he didn't get time to finish before he got punched in the chest,

"What's the matter Doom? Can't fight what you can't see." Cynders voice seemed to be coming from everywhere, Doom started shifting through the EM spectrum, hoping to find her, but he only got darkness, then he got punched in the face again.

"Okay, I can't see, my sensors don't work, my ears-" then it hit him, somewhat literally since he got the idea right after he was punched again. Doom started tapping the ground with his metal leg, using the sound wave as a base for his sonar, he faintly detected a dragon nearby and fired a plasma blast, then the lights came back on.

Doom blinked and saw that the explosion from the plasma had cleared Cynders darkness from the air, allowing Doom to see again, he looked back to where he'd sensed the other dragon and saw a large dent in the wall with a battered and bruised Spyro stuck in it, then Cynder punched Doom out of nowhere, then she vanished, then she kicked him in the side, then she was gone again, she kept striking and disappearing and striking again, making sure that Doom didn't get a chance to take a swing at her.

"I learned a few things from watching you fight Doom." Cynder said before slashing him across the face and disappearing again, "You use brute strength to take your enemies out quick, an effective strategy for someone with your capabilities. But its irrelevant when your enemies moving to fast for you to hit!" She whipped him across the face with her tail. Doom decided to bunker down and wait for Cynder to tire out, then when her strikes started to slow he pounced and tried to pin her down, but Cynder pushed up with her hind legs mid-flip and used Dooms momentum to flip him over and pin him down.

"Give up, you can't get out of this!" Cynder growled, pushing on Dooms shoulders, a sly smile spread across Dooms face, "What's so funny?"

"You lose." Doom said,

"And why's that." Cynder asked, Dooms smile widened and he placed his metal hand on her wrist,

"Because your fighting an enemy with electrical powers while wearing a metal bracelet." Cynders eyes widened just as Doom sent an electric shock through his palm, it was magnified by her bracelet, necklace, and tail ring, knocking her out cold. Doom pushed her unconscious body off of himself and stood up, then he was hit in the back with a bolt of electricity,

Doom turned and saw Spyro staring at him, ready to fight, "Maybe I should have knocked him out first." Doom thought, remembering Dark Spyros promise in the temple dungeon. Then Spyro got a small smirk on his face and lit himself on fire, Doom got the message, he created an energy sphere around himself,"Charge!" He shouted and, well, charged Spyro full speed, the purple dragon returned the favor and the two met half-way across the arena. The two of them crashed into each other, pushing as hard as they could, Doom could faintly hear the candidates cheering in the background, mostly for Spyro but he occasionally heard his name, he pushed it out of his mind and focused on overpowering Spyro, the two stared each other in the eye, totally focused on taking out there opponent, then the energy of the two attacks reached critical and it exploded.

When the smoke cleared Doom was still standing, looking like he took on the Destroyer one on one, but there was a triumphant smile on his face as he looked at the crater that Spyro had made do to the force of the explosion. Then the smoke cleared and Doom saw Spyro was still standing, panting heavily, the purple dragon just stared back at Doom with the same 'bring it' look on his face, then he coughed up a glob of blood. "Spyro, that's enough, this is going way to far!" Doom said, if they kept going at this one of them was going to be turned into a large puddle on the ground,

"So you give up then?" Spyro said,

"I never give up."

"Neither do I!" Spyro created a ball of earth around himself,

"Your not going to beat me in a charge Spyro, you've seen how strong I am." The ball started spinning, but it didn't move anywhere it just kept spinning faster and faster, then it caught on fire, then it spun faster, then it started giving off sparks, then it started moving toward him, "Oh shit!" Doom thought, he barely had time to create an energy sphere around himself and raised his wings before Spyro crashed into him full force.

For a second the shield held, then it gave out and the only thing protecting Doom from Spyros triple threat was Dooms metal wings, and they wouldn't hold very long, he finally pulled his wings back and tried to block Spyro with his hands, closing his eyes pressing against the rock ball with his fore legs until it finally stopped, he opened his eyes and found his paw on Spyros forehead, the earth sphere had crumbled as it lost momentum, his power level was at eight percent,

"Spyro." Doom groaned,

"Yeah."

"You win." Then he collapsed, panting heavily,

"You alright?" Cynder asked as she limped over from where Doom had shocked her,

"Yeah." Doom gasped, starring at the ceiling, "I'm just gonna lye here for, oh maybe a few years."

"Well, if the three of you are done growing your egos," Cyril said, "Maybe we can begin with the trials."

"No. It's far to late for that." Terrador said, "We can begin the trials tomorrow, for now let's just let everyone get some rest."

"Thank you." Doom, Spyro and Cynder all groaned in unison, Terrador and the guardians left the room, the others followed them, Drake and Explosion supporting Spyro and Cynder as they limped out of the room, "I'll see you guys later." Doom called before passing out.

Several hours later

Doom took a moment to look around the dining room, the guardians had gone to bed for the night, Coal was sitting in a corner starring off into the distance, Fireball was sitting by himself, whether by choice or because he'd been alienated by the other candidates Doom didn't care, and Spyro, Cynder, Blake, and Drake were clustered around Explosion and Inferna, who were in the middle of an arm wrestling contest. Doom walked past and grabbed a deer off the pile in the center of the room, then there was a soft thud accompanied by the sound of several dragons letting out either cheers of excitement or sighs of disappointment, Doom turned around and saw Explosion rubbing his paw while Inferna had a sly smile on her face, "Hey, Doom!" Explosion called, "Why don't you come sit with us."

"Your not gonna try and blow me up are you?" Doom asked jokingly, the others just laughed,

"Okay, very funny." Explosion said when everyone calmed down, his voice became serious, "But listen, I'm a pyromaniac and I'd be the first to admit it, but I do believe in giving people chance."

"Alright, I'm sorry."

"Don't be. You weren't entirely wrong-" Explosion suddenly spat a small fire ball that exploded mid air, "Like I said, I'm a total pyro!"

"Ever think you may have a problem?" Drake asked, Explosion just scowled,

"My problem was my old life," he groaned, "I grew up in a small village in the middle of nowhere, everyday it was the same boring routine; wake up, breakfast, school, work, lunch, work, training, dinner, hit the bed. It was driving me nuts, then one day training goes crazy wrong and something blows up, and no that was not my fault." He paused for a moment, "There was something about that blast, I don't know if it was the randomness of it or I just like the lights, it just made me feel good, and after that I took every opportunity I could to sneak off and... Just blow stuff up!" He finished with a sigh, then he seemed to perk up and looked over at Coal, "Hey Coal!" He called, the black dragon didn't seem to take notice, "COAL!" No response, Explosion sighed, then he got that crazy look in his eye and launched another small fire ball that blew up an inch from Coals face. Coal didn't react at first but after a few seconds he seemed to stir.

"Wha-what? Did you call me?" He asked, shocking everyone with just how unaware he was of his surroundings,

"Why don't you come over here."

"No thanks, I'm good." Coal said, and then he drifted off again,

"Hey, come on man, I don't bite." Explosion said,

"Forget it." Inferna sighed, "He's already gone." Explosion frowned, getting Coal to come out of his shell was gonna be harder than he thought, he glanced over at Fireball and briefly considered inviting him over, than decided against it, "If you even think of calling him over, then I'll break your hand this time." Inferna said, noticing Explosions gaze,

"Oh, that reminds me!" Doom said, the cables extending from his shoulder and causing the candidates to jump, "Spyro, Cynder, I want to scan you guys to make sure we didn't damage some of the stuff I already put into you before we were fighting earlier."

"Wait, you guys were already injured before you had that fight?" Blake asked, "Even I know thats stupid!"

"We do a LOT of stupid stuff." Spyro chuckled, "Alright Doom, hit me." Then Cynder punched him in the shoulder, right on a large bruise, "OW! What was that for?"

"You said 'hit me'" Cynder replied with a smug smile, Doom just chuckled and plugged his cables into Spyro, fixed any of the implants that had been damaged and put in a few new ones to fix any injuries he'd gained from there fight, then moved to Cynder and repeated the process, then he did the same to himself.

"Alright, I'm going back for seconds." He said, patching up the three of them after he was already drained from the fight had drained his power level, sleeping was the best way to restore it but he didn't feel like going to bed yet, thankfully eating was the second best way to get his power back up. "Any of you guys want more?"

"Grab me another deer please." Spyro said, Doom walked over to the pile and grabbed two deer off the pile, then, making sure no one was looking, he slipped a smoke pellet into the second deer, then he carried them both back to the group and handed the booby-trapped deer to Spyro. As soon as as the purple dragon took a bite he got a face full of smoke and everyone broke out laughing.

"Hey." Spyro coughed, "What was that for?"

"That was for thinking I got lost on the way back to the temple." Doom said, managing to get the words out over his laughter,

"Hey, are you alright?" Coal called, suddenly waking from his usual state,

"He's fine Coal," Doom replied, "It was just a smoke bomb."

"Not him, Blake!" Everyone stopped laughing and looked over at Blake, the twin was cringing in pain and had a hand on his stomach.

"BLAKE!" Drake cried, running over to his brother, "What's wrong bro?"

"Me and my dinner are having a disagreement." Blake groaned,

"I warned you." Spyro said, Doom was confused for a second but he soon realized what was going on,

"Don't tell me Sparx-"

"Yep." Spyro said, Doom groaned, his encounter with Sparx toxic cooking had not been pleasant, he could only imagine how someone who didn't have a metal stomach felt!

"I think you should call it a night." Cynder said,

"No, don't worry." Blake replied, twitching as a burst of agony ripped through his gut, "I have never lost a fight with my stomach before and I'm not about to start now."

"You don't have a choice." Drake said forcefully, "Your going to get some rest, now come on." He said, rising and allowing his brother to lean against his side for support. As they turned to leave Blake suddenly twitched again, his tail-blade accidentally hit Infernas necklace and sent it flying through the air, it bounced a few inches when it hit the ground and fell into a small grate,

"NO!" Inferna screamed, Doom gulped, she'd been willing to do a lot to get that necklace back from Volt, he could only imagine what she would do after this. He got his answer when she tackled Blake and pinned him to the wall, "I'LL KILL YOU!" She roared, then Drake tackled her and pinned her down, she started thrashing and tried to throw him off.

"Inferna, calm down." Cynder said, "Tomorrow we'll go down there and find your necklace, you just have to wait."

Inferna stopped thrashing and glared at Cynder for a moment, "Fine," she spat, Cynder nodded to Drake, who hesitantly let her up and walked back over to his horrified brother, then Inferna shot Blake a sinister look, "But if we don't find it, all bets are-" her voice trailed off, "Hey, what's Coal doing?" Everyone looked over and saw the black dragon had pulled the grate off the floor and was trying to fit his head through the hole.

"Stop Coal." Doom said, the hole was way to small for anyone to fit through, "There's no way that you can-" his mouth hung open as Coal expertly twisted his thin body and wormed through the hole. After a few seconds Coals hand shot back up, triumphantly holding Infernas necklace. Inferna charged over and grabbed her necklace out of Coals hand.

"Thank you Coal." She said, tying the string back around her neck, Coals hand retracted and his head popped up out of the hole, a big, goofy smile on his face,

"You guys have got to stop underestimating me." He said slyly as he pulled himself up, "Otherwise it's gonna be more than your pride that gets hurt next time. Goodnight." And with that he walked out of the room, already returning to daydreams.

"Well, I don't know about you guys," Doom stretched, "But I'm following his lead."

"You're gonna start starring off into nowhere?" Inferna chuckled,

"I heard that!" Coal called from the hallway, spooking everyone with his sudden awareness of the world, and on that awkward note they said there goodbyes and headed off to bed.

Another several hours later

Inferna couldn't take it anymore, she'd been trying to fall asleep for hours, but Sparx snoring was making it impossible, even though he was on the other end of the hall, so she gave up and decided take walk and clear her head, it had been a long day, she'd gone from a street kid from the Warfang Slums to a candidate for one of the most important positions any dragon could hold, the universe really did have a crazy sense of humor, then she heard a strange noise, it almost sounded like someone was crying. Curious, Inferna went to investigate and found herself outside one of the candidates rooms, she slowly opened the door and looked inside.

It wasn't one of the candidates, it was Doom! "Please, just make it stop." He whimpered,

"What's wrong big guy?" She asked, then she noticed his mechanical eye wasn't red anymore, it was black, she guessed that that meant he was asleep, so what was he dreaming of?

"I can't take the pain anymore." It was not something pleasant, Inferna sat down next to Doom, she could hardly believe it, Doom had taken out Volt and his gang without breaking a sweat, and here he was shivering and whimpering like a scared hatchling.

"What happened to you?" She thought, it was obvious that Doom hadn't become what he was naturally, but she never put to much thought into how it happened. How was it that some parts of his body had been replaced by metal, who had done it to him, and why? Inferna looked back at Doom, and was shocked to find her paw gently rubbing his cheek.

"What's wrong with me?" She thought, quickly pulling away, "Earlier I was still a hard-as-nails street kid, now I'm acting like-" A memory interrupted her thoughts, she saw a village, HER village, the one she'd lived in when she was younger! She saw her family, her friends, everything was so peaceful, then it all went to hell. Blood, screaming, death, apes everywhere, her father- she managed to push the memories back down, grabbing her necklace and rubbing the wooden fang against her chest. She'd been plagued by those memories every time she went to sleep, and if she was unfortunate enough they would pop up while she was awake, like now. She looked at Doom again, was that what it was like for him? Spending his nights haunted by ghosts of the past and hoping they wouldn't come out during the day.

"Stop. Please." Doom begged, "The pain, it's to much." Inferna got up and walked out of the room, but stopped halfway out the door, something made her turn around and the next thing she knew she was lying next to Doom with her good wing draped over him. At first she started to reconsider the idea, then she noticed that Doom had stopped shaking, "The pain." He groaned,

"Shh." Inferna whispered, "It's okay. Your safe now."

The next morning

Doom slowly opened his organic eye, then he noticed that he felt somewhat strange, like there was a blanket on top of him, and for some reason everything in his right eye was red, he yawned, turned his head, and nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw Inferna sleeping next to him,

"WOAH!" He cried, falling out of bed for the second time in two days. He got up and saw Inferna starting to wake up,

"Morning Doom." She yawned,

"Inferna! What the hell are you doing in here?" Doom asked, quickly glancing at the door to make sure it was closed,

"You were having nightmares." She replied, Doom frowned, he'd hoped that no one would notice his nightmares, or that they would just write them off as a regular bad dream,

"Do you have any idea how much trouble we'll be in if anyone someone finds you here?"

"Doom, relax." Inferna said calmly, "I just slept next to you, nothing else happened."

"I don't care. If the guardians find out there going to give me a new room six feet under! Not to mention you could lose your place in the trials."

"Alright, I'll leave, excuse me for trying to help!" She growled, walking out of the room, Doom mentally kicked himself for being so hard on her, then he remembered that the night mares had stopped a few hours into the night, maybe she had helped.

Doom walked into the hallway "Inferna." He called softly, she stopped and glared back at him, "Do you think maybe... Tonight you could... Again." A surprised look filled her face,

"Sure."

"Thank you." She turned around and continued walking back to her room, careful not to make any noise, Doom let out a mental sigh when she turned the corner,

"This is going to be a long... How long did the guardians say the trials lasted?"

**Well, this has been one crazy chapter, hasn't it?**

**Sorry if the fight scene seemed a little lack luster, I've been in this weird mood where I'm in the mood to write but not in the mood too write at the same time and it may have effected it a little. **


	10. Chapter 10

TLoS: Shadow of Doom

Chapter 9

Doom stretched himself out, hearing every organic bone he had left give out a soft crack, he let out a massive yawn, groaned softly and fell to the ground for a long overdo rest. It had been a solid week since the trials had started, and the guardians were taking every opportunity to get him, Spyro, and Cynder involved. It wasn't to bad when they had him do some heavy lifting, but when they called him for the more acrobatic challenges he fell flat, Doom let out a low groan as he remembered his words to the guardians after a particularly embarrassing failure, "If you need a Golem clobbered to death, call me. If you need me to literally jump through hoops, find someone else." No surprise they'd called him to help with another acrobatic challenge the day after, and his muscles burned simply from thinking about the incident, so he pushed it out of his mind,

He was lying on the roof of the temple looking out over the gardens, Doom took a deep breath and let out a loud yawn, feeling the sunlight warm his body as it was absorbed by his black scales, "This is what I missed most." Doom thought, remembering back to the years before he'd been captured, "Those days in the mountains when I could just lye on top of a peak somewhere and soak in the sunlight." He sighed, all those years he'd spent as Daedalus's lab rat, the one thing he'd hoped to see again before he died was the sun, it was one of the few things that had ever made him feel comfortable, the one thing that had helped him relax back in the days he'd been afraid of his own shadow. Even now it seemed to have that strange effect on him, relaxing his muscles, clearing his mind, and basically helping him forget the abomination he was.

Doom sighed again and looked down into the gardens were the candidates were enjoying the fact that they'd gotten the day off, mostly because Explosion had accidentally damaged a large portion of the dummies that were going to be used in the days trial. Dooms gaze shifted to the yellow dragon, who was happily launching fire balls into the air and watching them explode.

Explosion, true to his word, was a total pyro. In every elemental challenge there'd been he'd just blasted his way through it with no regard for finesse or accuracy, every sparring match he'd unleash barrages of explosive blasts to demolish his enemies at a distance, and when his elemental power ran out he'd start swinging his massive, axe-like tail blade around with reckless abandon, to add to that he was hard to pin, if you tried to pin him on his stomach his spikes would jab into you, and if you pinned him on his back you had to make sure he couldn't take a shot at you otherwise you'd get your face burned off. But despite his rough nature he'd shown that he was extremely caring, often settling disputes between the candidates, trying to help everyone get along, and doing his best to get Coal and Fireball to warm up to the others. Doom looked over to Coal, the strange black dragon had five books open in front of him.

If Volteer had swallowed a thesaurus, then Coal had swallowed a library. When he wasn't starring off into oblivion he was always reading; history, science, medicine, strategy, architecture, magic, herbalism, the topics were endless, and he sometimes used words that even Volteer didn't know the meaning of! It was no surprise that he'd aced the intellectual challenges, and it was also no surprise that he didn't do so well in the physical ones, he was somewhat weaker than most of the candidates, even the shortest run or flight winded him, and he seemed average when it came to his element, but he made up for his weaknesses with intuition and creativity. Strangely he'd seemed to do fairly well in sparring matches, using his two tusk-like horns for both offense and defense, his razor edged wings made it difficult to approach from the side, and he took any advantage he could get, sometimes throwing sand into his opponents eyes, Cyril had often chastised Coal for his dishonorable tactics, Coal would always counter by saying "There's no honor on the battlefield." Something that had earned him quite a few angry glares from Fireball. Doom looked over at Fireball, the dragon was tossing blows at the air, sparring with some invisible opponent, Doom let out a low growl.

In the week he'd been there Fireball had done nothing but get on everyone's bad side, showing absolutely no respect for anyone but the guardians, it was needless to say that he hadn't made any friends and wasn't about to start anytime soon. But despite this, and it hurt Doom to admit it, Fireball was a very capable candidate, winning most of the fights he'd been in and showing superb strength, speed, stamina, agility, and elemental mastery, he could also take a lot of pain, something he'd proven by frequently cauterizing his wounds in combat. The little information about himself Fireball had revealed was that he was born and raised a member of a nomadic warrior group known as the Wanderers, who had believed Malefor would return and had sworn that they would be ready, no mater how many years or generations it took. Needless to say he hadn't been to happy when Spyro told him that Malefor was sealed in the planets core rather than rotting there, in fact, if Drake hadn't intervened it was almost certain that Fireball would have attacked the purple dragon then and there. Doom looked over at Blake and Drake, the twins were in the middle of a wrestling match.

Drake had told him that there mother died and there father sank into a deep depression shortly afterward, basically leaving them to fend for themselves, Drake knew that one of them had to grow up, one of them had to be the older brother, and he decided it was going to be him, though Doom wished that Drake stopped Blake from setting up pranks all over the temple instead of helping him with them, "It would be nice to be able to walk down the hall without having to look for tripwires." Doom thought, where Drake was somewhat mature and had a good sense of when a joke was going over the line, Blake seemed to lack this internal censor, saying whatever was on his mind, which had landed him in hot water more than once. Volteer had explained that Blake's lack of maturity was common among younger siblings who were protected by there older sibling, still, they'd both proven to be rather smart, in good physical shape, and were skilled with there element, and Doom could easily see one of them becoming fire guardian. Then Dooms thoughts shifted to Inferna.

It was no secret that most of the candidates had thought she would fail the trials almost instantly, Blake had even joked about starting a betting pool on when she failed, though he won him was a punch in the gut from his brother. It wasn't that no one liked her, it was her wing, everyone thought it would hold her back or that the guardians would have to toss her out when they got to the arial challenges, but the guardians always seemed to have some alternative test specially designed for a flightless dragon, clearly this wasn't the first time one had been nominated to become a guardian. Any doubts about Infernas capabilities had been erased after seeing her in action, she was arguably the fastest of the candidates, and she was just as impressive in the ring as she was in the obstacle course; dodging every blow that came her way, unleashing furious elemental assaults on anyone who took to the air, and she wasn't afraid to use dirty tactics. But the thing that truly amazed Doom was her personality, after spending there entire life in a slum you would expect someone to be bitter, cynical and generally unpleasant, but Inferna was anything but; she funny, caring, sometimes even sweet, but at the same time she was also a complete tomboy, tough, resilient, and able to take the harsh jokes that some of the other candidates gave her, and send them back tenfold, her sharp tongue giving her an advantage. And she had such an unbreakable spirit, Doom really found her inspiring, she didn't let everything that had happened to her in the slums change her, she didn't break, unlike him, he'd given up back when he was a prisoner, he'd stopped fighting back, but Inferna... Where was Inferna anyway, she wasn't down in the gardens?

"So, what are you doing up here?" Doom looked back and saw Inferna walking toward him, sunlight glinting off her red scales, and he couldn't help but smile at the dragoness that had been helping to ease his nightmares,

"Just enjoying the view." Doom replied, Inferna smiled back at him and he feel his heart warming, "Though I really should be asking you why your up here." Her smile was replaced by an annoyed glare,

"I climbed up here if that's what your asking." She growled,

"I wasn't, I just wanted to know why you were up here." Doom replied calmly, "I stopped underestimating people after Coal pinned Explosion." Her face softened,

"I was looking for you."

"Any particular reason why?"

"I just wanted to see you, I figured it would be nice to be able to get some time alone."

Doom smiled and let out a low chuckle, of all the candidates, Inferna was the only one he truly considered a friend, Explosion was nice but he was to interested in his past, Blake was afraid of him, Drake always seemed to think he was going to hurt Blake, Coal hadn't said more than five sentences to him, and Fireball; enough said. Inferna was the only one he thought of as a true friend; she knew she could trust him, just like he trusted her, they always knew how to make each other laugh, and she'd been willing to risk her place in the trials to help him with his nightmares, staying by his side each night, he just felt.. safe when he was around her. "Alright then," he said softly, "Come over here." She walked over and laid down next to him,

"So what are you doing up here anyway, I mean sure the view is nice but can tell your thinking of something else." She asked, stretching her sore muscles, cracking her joints and splashing Doom across the face with a quick flash of red light from her scales, he smiled again,

"I came up here to enjoy the sun, it's something I haven't been able to do since-" he paused suddenly, how could he have nearly told her about that, he was usually so careful when it came to slipping information about his past, and yet he'd nearly given her the start of the whole emotional story, what in Dante's Freezer was wrong with him? "-a long time ago." He finished,

"Never pictured you as the 'Find a quiet place to lye down and soak in the sun' type of guy." She replied,

"Yeah, well," sadness filled his voice as he gazed at his reflection in his leg, "Like I said I haven't been able to do this for a long time." Inferna moved closer to him, "Why am I doing this?" Doom thought, "I'm practically screaming for her to ask about my past, and that hell is not something I can ever tell someone else about." Tears formed on his eye as the memories drifted through his head,

"What happened to you?" Inferna thought, she was lying to his right so she couldn't see the tears, but she could tell they were there, "Who did this?" Then she noticed Doom had a small smile on his face, "What's with the rapid mood shift?" She asked somewhat confusedly, Doom just kept starring at something in the courtyard, Inferna followed his gaze, and even she had to give off a soft 'aww' when she saw what he was looking at.

Lying in the shadow of a large tree were Spyro and Cynder; his wing draped over her, her head on his shoulder and his head on top of hers, there eyes closed and just enjoying each others company.

"That's good for them." Inferna said, happy to see Spyro and Cynder finally getting some time together,

"Yeah, it is." Doom agreed with a chuckle, "Even if they don't know it yet."

"Ha ha, very funny." Inferna replied, Doom just starred at her, "Wait, your SERIOUS?! How do they not know they love each other."

"I'll tell you as soon as I find out, then we'll tell them together and time how long it takes them to stop starring at us." The two of them broke out laughing, but when they stopped Inferna let out a small sigh, in the time she'd known Doom she'd noticed that his smile never fully spread across his face, his laugh always sounded sad and somewhat forced, he never really seemed happy.

"You okay Inferna?" Doom asked,

"Yeah, it's just-" She paused, "What happened to you?" She wanted to ask, but she knew she couldn't, she remembered the times she'd snapped when someone asked her about he past, it never ended well, "Sometimes I wish I had what those two have, even if they don't know it yet." She said, hiding her true thoughts, though her answer was still true, the slums weren't exactly the best place to form a deep, personal relationship.

Doom just sighed, becoming depressed again, "Sometimes I wish it was possible for me to have what they have." Doom said, his voice filled with sorrow.

"Hey, don't talk like that." Inferna said, unable to believe what he had just said, "Your a great guy, I'm sure that someone would love to be with you."

"Really?" Doom said disbelievingly, "Because I find that hard to believe, every time someone sees me they either run away screaming or assume I'm going to kill someone, never mind the fact that my name is Doom, which doesn't exactly help things, how do you think I could possibly find ANYONE who would care about me that way!?"

"Well that attitude isn't helping." Inferna replied bluntly, "And you need to stop thinking your appearance is going to play into it so much." Doom anxiously sat up,

"I think that because its true, no one EVER sees past the metal." Sorrow was returning to Dooms voice,

"That's because it's hard to see anything when the suns bouncing off you." Inferna replied, squinting as some sunlight bounced off of one of the plates on Dooms chest, "Lye down again, would ya."

"Sorry." Doom replied, lying back down "It's just, you don't know what it's like, everyone immediately thinking your some kind of abomination just because you look like one."

"Yes I do!" Inferna said forcefully,

"Oh please." Doom said, "Just look at yourself, even with your wing, your... Beautiful." Why had he just said that? Inferna was a good friend, but so was Cynder, and he didn't go just blurting stuff out like that with her! He nervously looked back at Inferna, ready for her to shove her fist down his throat, but to his surprise she just had the same shocked look he had, "I'm s-sorry, that j-just came o-out of n-nowhere." He said, his face suddenly became hot and he hoped his black scales hid if he was blushing. Inferna just smiled at him.

"See, that's the kind of thing that will get someone to like you." She said in a soft, soothing voice, "And... Thanks."

"S-sure thing." Doom said, he suddenly felt a warm, soothing sensation in his chest, "What is wrong with me? Why do I feel this way?" He thought,

"Stop acting so nervous, that was nice, even if it did 'come out of nowhere,' you have seriously got to stop worrying so much."

"Sorry. It's just..." He paused, "Don't say anything else." He thought, "If I keep talking I'm bound to make her curious, and then she'll ask about my past for sure." He thought, but for some reason, he kept talking. "I haven't exactly had a good life." He mentally slapped himself "Okay, now I'm just begging for her to ask me something."

"Neither have I." Inferna said in a soft, sad voice, "I spent my whole life in those slums, never knowing who I could trust and who would try to stab me in the back, or worse." She was lying, her past was far more painful then her being just another orphaned slum kid, but she couldn't tell anyone about it, the memories were to much. "Everyday I had to fight for everything, food, water, a place to sleep for the night, and sometimes I had to fight because some moron was angry and wanted to get in a fight. It's the only life I've ever known," Tears formed in her eyes as she kept lying, kept erasing her village from history, "But it's not the life I would have wanted." She managed to keep the tears from leaving her eyes, Doom looked away. Inferna had told him that in the slums, showing any weakness would lead to a savage beating, so she'd learned to keep her emotions hidden, and yet here she was on the verge of tears right next to him, he was looking away out if respect, he knew she wouldn't want anyone to see her like this, then he felt something on his back, he looked over and saw Inferna had her wing draped over him.

For a few minutes they just lied their together, Doom looking away while Inferna cried, her wing draped over him, then she looked back and saw her wing draped over Doom and quickly pulled away, her face filled with shock and embarrassment, "I'm sorry." She said frantically, "I d-don't use this thing much, I-I don't always k-know what it's d-doing." Doom couldn't help but let out a soft laugh.

"Now who's the one who's worrying to much?" He asked slyly, Inferna couldn't help but smile,

"Okay, you got me." She said, blushing slightly, "I won't give advice that I don't follow."

"Alright." Doom chuckled again, then he became serious, though somewhat awkward, "Inferna," she looked at him, still blushing, and felt his cheeks go hot, "I, um, I didn't really mind..." Infernas face filled with surprise,

"Well, i-if you don't mind..." She draped her wing back over him and pulled herself closer until their flanks touched, Doom jolted slightly at the strange contact, "What happened to you?" Inferna thought for the third time that day, she'd never known any dragon to jump after something as simple as that, she had to know. They'd been friends for a week and he hadn't shared one thing about his past, other than growing up in the mountains, she had to know, but she also knew she had to ease her way into it, his past was painful, then she remembered a name.

"Doom."

"Yes." He replied distractedly,

"Who's Daedalus?" Doom suddenly went rigid, thousands of emotions flashed across his face, then his head turn towards her, his face was an emotionless mask, but his eye was filled with anger, fear, and sadness, then he spoke in a low whisper, Inferna wasn't sure if he was going to start crying or try to kill her,

"Where did you hear that name?"

"Y-You said it o-one night, w-while you were a-asleep." She said fearfully, she knew she'd hit a nerve, and experience told her that the best thing to do was to back off slowly, "I was just curious." Doom just kept starring at her for a moment, then he looked away, his face filled with pain,

"Forget it." He groaned, Inferna slowly laid back down, cautiously moving closer to Doom and draping her wing over him, when he didn't react she pulled herself closer until she felt there flanks touch, Doom still didn't react,

"Hey, I'm sorry, I was just curious, I wanted to know more about you." Doom didn't respond for a few seconds, then he let out a heavy sigh,

"I'm sorry, but my past is not something I can share with anyone... Ever." He said in a pain filled voice, tears forming in his eye, Inferna pulled closer to him, feeling the scales and metal plates on his side rub against her, for a few moments they just laid there together until finally Doom broke the silence. "Inferna."

"Yeah."

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"Why is that necklace so important to you?" Inferna froze as the memories surged back into her head.

Flashback

A soft rain poured down over the Warfang Slums, mixing with the tears running down Infernas face as her mother hugged her,

"It's okay Inferna," her mother said soothingly, "We made it to Warfang, you'll be safe here."

"Mom," she whimpered, "Why did you bring me here? When are we going home?"

"We can't go home, the apes destroyed everything." Pain crept into her mothers voice,

"But what about Dad, and everyone else?"

Her mother began crying as well, "There gone Inferna," she weeped, "The apes killed them all, your the only one from are village who survived."

"What do you mean I'm the only one? Your still here."

"I know, and perhaps if it hadn't taken three days to reach Warfang I might have had a chance, but I'm too weak Inferna, I can already feel myself fading, I fear I won't last much longer." Inferna pulled away from her injured mother, shock and sadness in her eyes as she realized what her mother was saying,

"MOM, NO, YOU CAN'T DIE, PLEASE!" She cried helplessly,

"Inferna." Her mother said, putting a talon under her daughters chin and raising her head to make eye contact, "Listen to me, I don't want to leave you but there's nothing I can do, my time has come. But before I go..." She moved her paws behind her head and untied her necklace, then she retied it around her young daughters neck, "I want to give you this, and I want you to promise me that you'll be strong."

Inferna looked down at the wooden dragon fang carving that was now hanging from her neck "I'll try Mom." She whimpered,

"Good." Her mother said weakly, "At least I can leave you knowing you'll be safe here," then she collapsed, the little strength she had leaving her body, "Goodbye my beautiful daughter, I'll always love you." And then she was gone, leaving Inferna alone in the Slums of Warfang.

Present

Inferna snapped out of the flashback, she could tell she'd been crying, it had been years since that day, since her mother died in her arms, but it never got any less painful to remember. She looked over at Doom, who was starring at her with a regretful, caring look on his face, "I don't want to talk about it." She said,

"Alright." Doom replied, and the two of them just laid there in silence until the sun began to set.

**Just a few things for this AN**

**ONE THOUSAND VIEWS! YEAH!**

**sorry it took me so long to post this, I was reading The Broken Line by Dragonmaster000, (Best, Spyro fic, ever!)**

**Next chapter maybe a little short, like this one it's a bit of a filler**

**and another reason it took so long to get this up is because, well, if I'm not that good at writing non-fight scenes, you can only imagine how long it takes me to write big emotional scenes, especially love scenes.**

**(sound of door exploding)**

**and before Doom strangles me to death I just want to say this again **

**ONE THOUSAND VIEW- (choking noises)**


	11. Chapter 11

TLoS: Shadow of Doom

Chapter 10

"So who do you think is going to be the next guardian?" Cynder asked,

"Give me a second to think on that." Doom replied,

"Alright, what about you Spyro?"

"If you ask me, I think it might be Drake." Spyro replied, "He's tough, he's smart, and he's more mature than most of the other guys."

"If he's more mature, then why did I find him rigging another booby-trap in your room?" Doom replied slyly,

"I never said he was the most mature, anyway, who do you think it's going to be Cynder?" Cynder thought for a moment, then frowned,

"Well, as much as I hate to say it I think it might be Fireball."

"WHAT?!" Doom cried in shock, "Your kidding me right? What makes you think that stuck up jerk should be a guardian?"

"I agree," Spyro said, "The guys got a bigger complex than Cyril, and I doubt that's a major job requirement."

"True," Cynder replied, "But the main reason I think he's going to be the next guardian is because he's a Wanderer."

"Oh, not you to." Doom groaned, Fireball had been going on and on about being a Wanderer all week, it was getting on everyone's nerves,

"Hey, those guys are tough, believe me, I know." Cynder replied,

"Oh, come on." Spyro said disbelievingly, "How tough can they be?"

"Remember how Gaul only had one eye?" Cynder answered,

"No way!" Spyro gasped, "Your saying Fireball did that!"

"No I'm saying a Wanderer did that, although it could have been him, I was a little busy at the time."

"Busy with what?"

"Gaul's not the only one who fought the Wanderers, and those fights never ended well." Cynder replied, cringing slightly and rubbing a scar on her side that had vanished when Spyro freed her.

"Im sorry." Spyro said softly, nuzzling her, "I didn't mean to make you remember that."

"It's okay, the one good thing about that memory is that I didn't leave a very high body count." Cynder replied, then a small smile spread across her face, "Actually there is one other good thing, Gaul got messed up." Her and Spyro broke out laughing, but Doom wasn't paying attention, his mind had drifted to the events from earlier that day when he and Inferna had been talking on the roof, why had he been acting that way with her? He'd nearly slipped up and told her about his past, told her she was beautiful, and let her get closer to him than he'd ever let anyone else,

"Why did I act like that?" He thought confusedly, "Sure she's a good friend but so are Spyro and Cynder, and I sure as hell don't act like that around them." Then a thought drifted into his head, maybe she wasn't a friend, maybe, just maybe, she was something more, no, he couldn't let himself start thinking like that, no one could care about him that way, not even her. "Strange," he thought, "That argument sounds a lot less convincing now."

"Doom." Spyros voice roused him from his thoughts,

"What? Did you ask me something?"

"Ugh, it's like having two Coals around." Spyro said in mock annoyance, "I asked you who you think the next guardians going to be."

Doom thought for a few seconds, he hasn't really been thinking about that particular subject to much, "The next fire guardian." He mumbled thoughtfully, considering his options, Drake and Fireball were already taken, Blake probably couldn't even take a heart attack seriously, Explosion was strong but wasn't very good with delicate work, Coal was smart but weak and he put a lot of thought into every decision or situation, there was only one candidate left, "Inferna seems like a good fit."

"Really," Cynder said in an interested voice, "Why do you think that?"

"Why are you asking miss second place record holder?" Doom replied slyly, Inferna had beaten Cynders obstacle course record by fifteen seconds,

"Alright, point taken." Cynder replied in a knowing tone,

"Alright, what is it?" Doom asked agitatedly,

"What is what?" Cynder said slyly,

"Your acting smug, what's going on?"

"Oh come on." Spyro said disbelievingly, "How can you not know?"

"Not know WHAT?!"

"That you-" Before Spyro could finish he was cut off when the candidates burst into laughter, Doom, Spyro and Cynder looked over to where the candidates where sitting, listening to Blake and Drake tell tale of some of the pranks they pulled on people back in Warfang,

"You seriously covered every window on his house in honey?" Explosion asked disbelievingly,

"Yeah, and all before sunrise," Blake said proudly, "That was one of our best pranks ever."

"Until we got busted," Drake added, "We were scrapping honey off that guys windows for so long I thought we'd never get the smell off our paws!"

"How did you get busted if you were done before sunrise?"

"He lived next door to two known pranksters," Drake replied, "Didn't take a big imaginative leap to figure out who was responsible."

"And our usual excuse didn't work." Blake added,

"What is your usual excuse exactly?"

"Well, before I got this." Drake said, placing a paw on the scar on his eye, "We looked alike," Everyone jumped as Blake and Drake started talking in unison, "We sound alike, it was almost impossible to tell us apart." They finished, "And then Drake got is head shoved in a meat grinder." Blake tossed in quickly, causing everyone to brake out laughing,

"For the love of the Ancestors would you two just SHUT UP!" Fireball shouted,

"Hey, back off man!" Blake snapped,

"Yeah, what's your problem?" Drake growled, he and Fireball had been at each others throats all week,

"My problem?" Fireball snarled, "My problem is this, I'm a Wanderer, a member of one of the greatest warrior groups in the world, and here I am as a candidate to be fire guardian, but instead of honored warriors..." His voice trailed off and he glared at the twins, "I'm competing with a couple of immature kids," he shifted to Explosion, "A brute who only cares about blowing things up," he shifted to Coal, "A madman," he shifted to Inferna, "And a flightless street rat." He finished, Doom immediately felt his rage building, especially with that last comment, who did Fireball think he was? Talking to the other candidates like that, especially Inferna, but before he could say anything the candidates gave there angry responses,

"You have no right to talk to us like that!"

"Why I oughta!"

"I'm gonna blow you up so bad there gonna find pieces of you in Warfang!"

"I am not crazy!"

"Screw you dipshit!"

Fireball just continued his rant, "And that's only half the issue!" His angry glare shifted to Spyro, "I also have to suffer through some gutless would-be hero who doesn't have the guts to end it!" He shifted to Sparx, "A smartalec talking candle!" He shifted to Doom, "That freak!" He shifted to Cynder, "And a MONSTER!" A hurt look crossed Cynders face, she was good at not letting Fireballs insults get to her, but occasionally he hit a soft spot,

"How dare you!" All eyes went to Spyro, who was practically radiating anger, Doom tensed, ready to pounce the purple dragon if he began to change, "Cynders done nothing but help me ever since I saved her, she's changed!"

"Yeah, that conclusion's based on some delusional world view that everyone is good inside, mine on the other hand..." Fireballs voice trailed off and he turned his flank towards them, revealing a large scar that looked like it was from an acid coated blade, "Is based on experience, she's no better than her master." Spyros eyes went white and Doom immediately tackled the purple dragon and pinned him to the wall,

"LET ME GO!" Dark Spyro roared, "I'LL KILL HIM!"

"I could use some help here!" Doom called, he could feel the corrupted dragon out muscling him, Cynder immediately ran over to help him, and after a few seconds Inferna, Blake, Drake, and Explosion piled on, and even then they were having trouble keeping Dark Spyro down.

"Spyro, that's enough!" Everyone looked over and saw Terrador standing in the doorway, "What would Ignitus think if he saw you acting like this?" Spyro immediately stopped struggling and began changing back to normal, then he collapsed onto Cynders shoulder, weeping softly,

"And you Fireball," Terrador continued, "I'd expected better from you, but all you've done since you got here is shame the good name of the Wanderers." Fireball almost looked hurt by the earth guardians words, but after a few seconds he just snorted and turned to leave, but was stopped when Coal pressed his tail-blade against his chest,

"Listen up, because I'm only going to say this once," he growled, a small drop of blood forming on the end of his blade, "I'll take a lot from you but I want to make one thing clear right now." He stared Fireball in the eye, giving him a glare that would make Malefor shudder, "I, AM NOT, CRAZY." Fireball held his gaze for a second, then spoke,

"Out of everyone, you deserve to be here the least; your weak, your not mentally stable, you talk like you know what it's like on the battlefield when you've only been there in books."

"Leave him alone!" Drake growled,

"Shove off!" Coal snapped, "I don't need you to protect me!" He shifted slightly, revealing dozens of scars hidden by his black scales,

Everyone gasped, shocked at Coals sudden transformation from an awkward, socially isolated kid to what he was now, but the scars were the biggest surprise; most of the candidates barely had any scars, Inferna had a couple from her old days in the Slums but not nearly as many as Fireball did from years of war and training, and Coal had as many scars as him. Coal lowered his blade and let Fireball pass, but the warrior dragon stopped when Terrador cleared his throat,

"I still haven't explained why I came here in the first place." The earth guardian said, "And I think it'll satisfy more than a few of you, tomorrow we will be testing your combat skills against foes with unusual abilities; you six candidates will be facing Spyro, Cynder, and Doom." Terrador barely finished the sentence before the candidates reacted, Blake's jaw hung wide open, Explosion gasped and looked around nervously, Drakes eyes nearly popped out of his skull, Fireball looked like a kid in a candy store, Coals eyes suddenly became focused,

"Things just got a lot more interesting." Doom thought,

Several hours later

"Blake will defiantly fight Spyro." Inferna said as she and Doom walked back to his room,

"And when he gets his butt shredded Drakes gonna fight Spyro and try to knock his teeth out." Doom agreed, the two of them let out a short laugh, "So who do you think the others will fight?" Inferna thought for a second, then shrugged,

"I'm not sure, Explosion looked like he was gonna have a heart attack from how nervous he was, and Coal-" one of Dooms sensors gave out a warning cry, he raised is metal leg protectively in front of Inferna just as a blast of fire erupted in front of them,

"Sorry about that." Fireball said slyly, stepping out of the shadows, "I just thought I'd show you what you'll be up against tomorrow."

"You call that power." Doom replied, walking over to a large statue of Malefor, "Thank the Ancestors they revered that guy." He thought as he lifted the statue over his head, tossed it into the air, and blasted it to dust. He looked over to Fireball, "That is power." He said simply,

"But what was the price?" Fireball said, Doom froze,

"What?"

"What did it cost for Malefor to give you that power?" Fireball restated the question, Doom immediately felt his rage building,

"You think I chose to become what I am!" He roared, "You have no idea what I suffered, no idea what they did to me, no idea of the pain I had to endure! Don't you dare suggest that I wanted this!" Fireball simply vanished back into the shadows,

"Good riddance." Inferna grumbled, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah." Doom replied, "Yeah I'm good, just pissed off, that's all." He took a few seconds to calm down, "So are you ready to go?" Doom asked,

"Not yet." Inferna said, Dooms outburst had reawakened her curiosity from earlier that day, she needed some answers, and she knew she couldn't get them from him, "I have something I need to take care of, you go to your room, I'll be there soon."

Cynders Room

"Hey, Cynder." Inferna called softly from outside Cynders room, "Can I come in? I want to talk to you."

"Sure thing." Cynder called back, Inferna walked into the room "What did you want to talk about?"

"Actually, I wanted to ask you something."

"What is it?"

"What happened to Doom?"

Cynder went rigged at the question, "Listen Inferna, his past is painful, and it's not mine to share, I'd wait until he tells you." Inferna let out a frustrated growl, Cynder was hiding the answer, and there was only one reason for that,

"Alright, let me rephrase the question." Inferna said coldly, "What did YOU do to him?"

"WHAT?" Cynder said in shock,

"His past is painful, and you've caused a lot of pain, so I'm guessing there's some correlation."

"I didn't do anything to him!" Cynder growled, it had taken her a long time to except that, but it was hard to keep thinking it was her fault when both Doom and Spyro kept telling her it wasn't. "Yes, he suffered at the hands of Malefors servants, but I wasn't one of them!"

"I find that hard to believe." Inferna said, the anger was fading from her voice,

"Well believe it, Spyro and Doom will give you the exact same story." Cynder replied, calming down as well,

"Alright." Inferna said in a defeated voice, "I'm sorry about all that, I'll go." She turned to leave,

"Not so fast." Inferna stopped and looked back at Cynder, "It's my turn to ask you a question Inferna." She said softly,

"Alright." Inferna groaned, "What is it."

"Do you love him?"

"What, no, what, why would you, I mean, I don't, why did you, ah crap." She finally managed to get control of her tongue, "Why did you ask me that?"

"I've seen the way you look at him," Cynder said simply, "And I've seen how you act around him, your more open."

"Look Cynder," Inferna said in as firm a voice as she could manage, "Dooms a great guy, and I'm sure he could find someone someday," her head drooped slightly, "Just not me."

"Why?"

"Because!" Inferna said desperately, "In the slums I had to keep every emotion locked away, I can't just let them out again, not even for my best friends!" And with that Inferna stormed out of the room, but as she walked through the temple Cynders words echoed through her mind.

'Do you love him?'

"Your a great guy Doom," she thought sadly, "You'll find someone someday, but not me, after everything I've been through I don't think I could ever open up like that for anyone."

But the more she repeated that argument, the less believable it became.

**Sorry if this chapter seems somewhat jumbled, I had a lot of stuff I wanted to put in it.**

**Also, I'm getting some writers block with this story so I'm going to take a short break, NOT A HIATUS, I've just got some other ideas that I want to work on so I'm taking a short break to publish some other stories, don't worry Shadow of Doom should be updated by the end of the month, though I can't make any promises.**


	12. Chapter 12

TLoS: Shadow of Doom

Chapter 11

Doom slowly returned consciousness, looking over and smiling at the dragoness sleeping next to him, he gave her a soft nudge, gently waking her, "What's up?" Inferna said groggily,

"The fights are today," Doom said, "I think the guardians will be checking-"

"I'm on it." She said, jumping up and walking towards the door, "See you later Doom." She said as she walked out the door,

"See ya." Doom called back softly, his heart sank as he watched her leave, but he knew it was for the best, the guardians were not going to be happy if they found out she'd been spending her nights with him. Then a very scary possibility entered his mind, he immediately checked his recording from the previous night; it started out simple, Inferna came in, a little spooked after a conversation with Cynder but he didn't know what it was about, then they went to sleep, and then...

"Ah crap."

Recording

Even though the door was closed Doom could still hear the voices talking outside his room.

"... Cynder, why are you doing this again?"

"Because Spyro, it's been at least week since I drained Dooms fear. I want to make sure he's not having nightmares again."

"Please don't drain him again, I saw what it did to you the first time, nothing's worth that much pain."

"After everything he went through, I think giving a goodnight sleep is..." The door opened and Cynder walked in, immediately seeing Doom and Inferna sleeping next to each other, "Spyro! You are not gonna believe this!"

"Cynder, it's Doom, I think I'll believe..." His voice trailed off as he walked in, "Anything but that!"

For a few seconds they just stood there starring at the strange couple, then Spyro spoke up.

"I knew those two were close, but I never thought they were THIS close."

"He looks so... Peaceful." Cynder said, watching Dooms slow, calm breathing, "I don't think I've ever seen him this relaxed."

"Do you think we should tell someone about this?" Spyro asked, "I mean, I don't think the guardians want people sharing rooms."

"It's alright Spyro." Cynder replied, watching as Doom shifted closer to Inferna, "There good friends, but I don't think anythings happened."

"Alright. But if we get in trouble for this than I'm hanging you out dry." Spyro said as they walked out.

"Such a gentleman." Cynder said sarcastically, "I'll see you tomorrow. Good luck and goodnight." She turned to leave.

"Or..."

Cynder looked back at him, a surprised look on her face, "Or?"

"Or... If you want... You could, I don't know, maybe you could... Stay with me tonight, I mean, if you want to."

"What, so it's okay if we get caught staying together but your afraid of getting in trouble for hiding the fact that there doing the same thing?" Cynder chuckled.

"Well, I figured if its okay for them..." His voice trailed off when Cynder nuzzled him.

"Of course I'll stay with you Spyro." Then they walked off, Spyros wing was draped over her and her head on his shoulder.

End of recording

"Please." Doom thought desperately, "Please please PLEASE don't let this come back to bite me or Inferna, but especially not her."

Several hours later

"Hey Doom," Cynder called as Doom walked into the dining room, "Sleep well?"

"Oh shit." Doom grumbled as he walked over, "There gonna have a lot fun with this."

"So," Spyro said innocently, "Have a nice night?"

"If either of you tell tell anyone-"

"Hey relax." Spyro replied calmly, "Your secret is safe with us."

"Good. I don't want anything to happen to her."

"Why are you two doing that anyway?" Cynder asked, "If your so worried about the guardians finding out, why not just stop?"

"Because..." Dooms voice trailed off before he could finish. Why didn't he just ask her to stop? The risks out weighed the benefits and he certainly didn't want Inferna to get in trouble. So why hadn't he just put a stop to it? He already knew the answer, she helped with his nightmares; he'd barely had any since she'd started sleeping with him. So was that it, was he just being selfish? No, she knew the risks just as much as he did, if she was afraid of getting in trouble she could have called it off, and she was the one who'd started it in the first place. Doom kept thinking but he just couldn't come up with an answer that felt right.

"Doom." Cynder said in a serious tone, starring him in the eyes, "Do you lo-"

"Don't ask me that Cynder!" Doom snapped, his voice more pleading than angry, "If your my friend then please don't ask me that."

"Why?"

"Because, look at me! Do you really think that there's anyone who could care about me that way? I know there isn't and I can't take the risk thinking that way about anyone. I'm only going to get hurt."

"Doom-"

"What? You don't think I've been hurt enough!?" He growled, cutting Cynder off.

"Hey calm down!" Spyro snarled, "We're just trying to help you!"

"Well thanks, but I recommend that before you two try and help with my issues you figure out your own." Doom replied, smirking at the confused looks on there faces.

"What's that supposed too-"

"What do you mean-"

"Attention everyone!" Cyril called, cutting off Spyro and Cynder, "If you will all come with me the fights can begin!"

"Thank the ancestors." Doom whispered as everyone rose to leave, happy that he didn't have to find some way around telling Spyro and Cynder they loved each other. Still, he was troubled by Cynders half finished question.

"I can't let myself think that way about anyone, not even her, I'm just gonna get hurt. Why does this argument sound so unbelievable?" He thought unaware that at that moment Inferna was asking herself similar questions.

"What happened to you?" She thought looking back at Doom. She'd asked herself that question so many times was starting to sound like some ancient riddle. She hadn't heard to much of Dooms conversation, but she had heard what he'd said near the end.

'You don't think I've been hurt enough!?' She already knew he'd suffered but whatever had happened it didn't mean he could just go snapping at people like that, if he did he was just going to drive everyone away.

'Do you love him?'

Inferna flinched as Cynders voice cut through her head again, normally she'd just try and shake it off by saying that there was no way she could open up to someone like that, but recently that argument had started sounding like a load of crap so she'd just given up on it. And then she, ironically enough, crashed into the black dragoness.

"Hey! Watch where your going!" It wasn't Cynder, it was Coal.

"Sorry about that, I was thinking-"

"Don't care, just make sure you don't walk into me again!" Coal spat before he fumed off, leaving Inferna stunned, she'd barely noticed Coal the entire week she was there but she knew that he wasn't acting normal; she'd seen the others crash into him, or in the guardians case trip over him, plenty of times and he normally just shook it off as though nothing had happened instead of snapping at them. But the thing that scared her was the way he'd changed as soon as he'd heard they were fighting Doom, Spyro and Cynder; instead of distant and distracted his eyes now held a deadly focus, his face was filled with anticipation as though he was about to fulfill some life long dream. She realized that they'd arrived at the training room and stopped to avoid crashing into Fireball, she was frustrated enough without that jerk yelling at her.

"Now then," Cyril said as the dragons assembled, "You should have had more then enough time too-"

"Uh, Cyril I believe that maybe I should handle this." Terrador politely interjected, he was better a phrasing things nicely then the ice guardian.

"Very well."

"Thank you. Now then," Terrador turned his attention to the candidates, "I assume you've all chosen who your going to be fighting? If not then I suggest you all think fast. Who's going first?

"As if he needs to ask." Explosion whispered as Blake stepped forward, causing some of the candidates to chuckle until Cyril gave them a harsh glare.

"Blake who will you be-"

"SPYRO!" Blake said eagerly, cutting Terrador off.

"Alright then." Terradore chuckled at Blakes enthusiasm, "Coal your next. Who will you be fighting?"

Coal didn't answer immediately, his eyes moved slowly across the room, he looked like he was drinking in the suspense, "Cynder." He said simply, his usual emotionless tone suddenly seemed sinister.

"Very well, next is... Spyro what are you- oh!" Everyone turned to see Spyro finish burning a large Coal-shaped outline on the wall.

"Real mature Spyro." Cynder said, trying not to giggle.

"Oh come on, we both know it's gonna happen." Spyro said innocently.

"Didn't I warn you guys not to underestimate me?" Coal said.

"Fireball, your next!" Terrador called, stopping the argument before it started.

"Doom."

"Shocker." Explosion whispered again, the twins chuckled before they were silenced by Cyril again.

"Drake who will you be fighting?"

"I'll take Spyro." Drake replied, shooting the purple dragon a glare that said 'If you hurt my brother, I'll make you regret it.'

"Well, I suppose that whoever was fighting Blake was going to have to fight him too." Doom thought, then he realized that no one could pick Spyro anymore and Inferna still hadn't picked her opponent! "Ancestors, please don't let her fight me."

"Explosion?"

"I'll take Cynder, I've seen what Dooms metal arm can do and I do not want to be on the receiving end!"

"Very well then, that means that Inferna- Oh Spyro REALLY?!" Everyone turned to see Spyro burning an Explosion-shaped outline next to the Coal-shaped one. "Infernas fighting Doom." Terrador groaned agitatedly, rubbing his forehead and trying to stave off his newly-formed migraine.

Dooms heart stopped when he heard that, how was he supposed to fight Inferna? Just thinking about it made his blood freeze, but he knew he had to, she would never forgive him if didn't, and how could he call himself her friend if he didn't respect her? It still wasn't easy, but he knew he couldn't hold back, he had to give it his all.

"Spyro! Blake! Take your positions!" The two combatants stood on the opposite ends of the arena, "The rules are simple; get your enemy to stop fighting by either knocking them out or making them surrender,"

"Or breaking something." Fireball mumble.

"You may use any tactics or skills you wish, as long as there not lethal. Are there any objections?" No answer.

"BEGIN!"

Blake immediately charged Spyro with his fists blazing, literally, he unleashed a barrage of punches and fire blasts, forcing the purple dragon to go on the defensive, Spyro scrambled back to avoid getting burnt and pummeled.

"So, how am I doing?" Blake asked in between blows.

"Not bad, except for one thing..." Spyro blasted a cloud of smoke in Blakes face then tackled him. The two rolled across the ground punching, slashing, and biting each other, though most of Blake's attacks missed since he was still partially blind, Spyro unleashed a blast of fire that sent Blake flying, then blasted his wings with ice to keep him from recovering midair. Blake tried to get up as soon as he hit the ground, but Spyro had already created earth shackles to pin him down. "Don't let your fanboy instincts distract you in the middle of a fight." Spyro said, "So I take it you give up?" Blake nodded yes.

"SPYRO IS THE VICTOR!" Terrador roared, "Cynder! Explosion! Take your positions!" The two stepped walked into the ring as Spyro and Blake walked out.

"BEGIN!"

Explosion immediately took to the sky and loosed a barrage of high explosive fire balls, his plan was simple; blast Cynder into submission before she had the chance to launch an attack. Cynder dodged the salvo and charged Explosion, but he punched her in the chest and sent her flying backward, they might of been the same age but Explosion was four inches taller than her and his body was covered in raw muscle. He quickly launched another salvo of fire balls, one of which hit home before Cynder could recover and she hit the wall, Explosion pressed his advantage and began glowing red, then he launched six massive fire blasts while Cynder was still dazed, all of which hit there. The smoke soon cleared, revealing a massive crater in the wall, but there wasn't a trace of Cynder.

"Oh no!" Explosion cried, "Please tell me I didn't overdo as bad as I think I did!" Doom and Spyro just chuckled.

"What's wrong with you two?!" Blake shouted, "He might've just vaporized her and you guys are laughing? And here I thought I was insensitive! What the hell is-" He stopped as Doom gestured to the wisps of smoke drifting behind Explosion. Before Blake could ask what they were the Cynder turned solid and tackled Explosion, sending both of them crashing to the ground. Explosion quickly ripped Cynder off his back and threw her to the wall, he charged another fury but before he could fire his vision started to blur, he blinked a few times but when he looked back at Cynder he realized that he was seeing double!

"Explosion, are you able to continue?" Terrador asked.

"Yeah, I think so, I just- whoa!" The next batch of symptoms hit him like a hammer, "Whoa whoa, aw man that hurts!"

"Are you alright?"

"No, I can't see, I feel dizzy, I'm gonna throw up, my mouths dry..." He managed to look up at Cynder, who had a satisfied smile on her face, "You poisoned me?" She just winked at him, "I quit!"

"CYNDER IS THE VICTOR!" Terrador roared, "Cynder could you help him please?" Cynder walked up to Explosion and sank her claws into his shoulder.

"YOW!" The yellow dragon cried, "Aw man I said I surrender, isn't that enough?"

"I had to give you the anti-venom; your choices were talons, teeth, or tail-blade." Cynder said simply.

"Gee, thanks." Explosion said sarcastically as Cynder helped him limp out of the ring, "What would that stuff have done to me if you hadn't stopped it?"

"It would've knocked you out for a few hours."

"Doom! Inferna! Take your positions!"

Doom felt like he was walking to his own execution, a part of him wanted to refuse to fight, but another part told him that he'd never forgive himself, and more importantly, Inferna would never forgive him if he forfeit the match. As he walked to his position Inferna shot him a quick glance, a look in her eyes that said 'I don't want to do this any more than you do, but we have to so let's just get it over with.' Doom nodded to show that he agreed.

"BEGIN!"

Inferna charged Doom so fast all he could do was raised his wings to block, but she moved to the side at the last second, unloading five punches into the organic parts of Dooms side and retreating before he could react.

"Nobody, and I mean nobody, moves that fast!" Doom thought, still recovering from the speed of Inferna assault. He didn't have time to react before she came a him with another barrage, moving so quickly his scanners could barely keep track of her.

But barely was enough.

Doom quickly grabbed her by the throat and slammed her to the ground, quickly repositioning himself to pin her down. "Gotcha!"

Infernas temperature suddenly spiked, Doom yelped in surprise and leaped off her, blowing on his singed paw to try and cool it off. "Your not the first guy to try and pin me down, I've got a few unusual tricks up my sleeve." Then she charged him again, moving almost faster than the eye could see.

"I need to get away from her, fast!" Doom thought, "I'm gonna feel like a jerk for doing this." He spread his wings and took to the air, the one place Inferna couldn't reach him.

Not with her fists anyway, her element on the other hand...

Doom soon found himself surrounded by blasts of fire, coming at him to quickly for him to dodge, after taking a few hits he managed to raise an energy shield. "Come on Doom." He thought, "You can fight better than this, any other dragon would be on the ground by now, how can I call myself her friend if I hold back while fighting her?" Doom quickly dropped to the ground and fired a blast of electricity from his tail, catching Inferna off guard, he then charged forward and punched Inferna in the chest and sent her flying into the wall.

For a few seconds it looked like she was down but then she pushed herself back up and walked back into the ring, ignoring the pain of her wounds.

"I'm impressed," Doom stated, "Most other dragons are out cold after I hit them that hard."

"I grew up in a slum, you learn how to take pain there, and that's not all I know how to do!" She suddenly began to glow red, charging a fury. "I really hope nothing goes wrong." She thought nervously. In the Slums attacks that caused high amounts of collateral damage drew the attention of the guards, and the last thing anyone wanted was guards flying around so furies were typically avoided, which meant Inferna didn't get many opportunities to practice proper fury usage.

She pushed her fears aside and put more energy into charging the attack, just a little more, it was finished! She immediately tried to release the energy, but the elemental energy just kept charging but she couldn't launch the attack, and if she ran out of elemental power the fury would start sapping physical strength! She started to panic and began desperately trying to launch the fury until finally the energy released, but she'd forgotten to control the energy manifestation and the training room was consumed by a blast of fire.

When Infernas vision cleared she quickly looked around to make sure that no one had gotten hurt by her misfired fury: Terrador had shielded the guardians with an earth wall, the candidates had protected themselves with fire shields, Spyro had done the same for Cynder, Sparx and himself, and Doom was safe inside his own energy sphere. "Oh shit that was a close one!" She gasped, having trouble standing do to the energy drain.

"So I take it your done now?" Doom asked.

"No way!" Inferna shot back, "I the slums we had a rule for fights: 'Don't stop until you can't move!" She quickly charged Doom, but he fired a set of bolas that tied her legs together.

"Your done." He said looking down at her, his eyes begging for her to stop the fight, and she couldn't but agree, she didn't want to fight him anymore.

"I give up."

"DOOM IS THE VICTOR!" Doom cut the cables and helped Inferna limp out of the ring, sitting next to her as Spyro and Drake took there positions.

"BEGIN!"

Spyro and Drake circled each other for a few minutes, neither of them willing to make the first move. Finally Spyro attacked, charging Drake and attacking with electrified claws, Drake shielded himself with his wings and waited till he found a weakness in Spyros assault then punched him in the chest, sending him reeling backward.

"Nice strategy." Spyro said, "You use defense, Blake uses offense, you must make quite a team." Drake didn't respond, he was in the zone, completely focused on the battle.

Spyro spent a good portion of the fight probing Drakes defenses for a weak spot until finally he froze Drake to the floor and electrified him, the demolished him with a series of blows before he could recover.

"SPYRO IS THE VICTOR!" Terrador roared as Spyro helped Drake out of the ring.

"CYNDER! COAL! Take your-"

"Yeah yeah, we get it!" Coal cut him off agitatedly, shocking everyone. Coal had always been respectful in the few brief time he'd talked to the guardians, but now he was acting worse than Fireball! He and Cynder took there position.

"BEGIN!"

The two combatants began to circle each other, but Coal wasn't in his usual fighting stance: normally his stance seemed, lazy, distracted and filled with defensive holes, though the candidate had quickly learned that it was a ruse to trick them into attacking, and his eyes usually appeared distracted and distant, but now he was circling with the stance of an experienced fighter, his eyes had an assassins focus, an angry snarl on his usually unemotional face, he let out an almost feral growl.

"Alright that's enough!" Cynder shouted.

"What do you mean?!" Coal asked angrily, "Come on I'm ready to fight!"

"What's going on here Coal? You've been acting strange ever since you heard about these fights."

"I'm always acting strange."

"Your being stranger than usual." Cynder replied, her voice taking on a gentle tone. "What's the problem? Did I do something to you or your family in the past?" Coals scowl deepened.

"It will be better if you talk about it."

Coal eyed the ground and growled again. "Want to know what my problem is Cynder?" He said in an agitated, sarcastic tone. "Fine, I'll let you in on a secret, we look a lot alike you and I. Real shocker I know. Now imagine what my little sister looks like!" Everyone gasped as Coal finished.

"What?!" Was the only response Cynder could give.

"She looks just like you!" Coal said, tears formed in his eyes and his voice filled with a mixture of pain, anger and sadness, his scars became visible again, "And when people figured that out they started giving her hell. At first she didn't really notice, we don't live in the nicest of places so she thought it was just people being jerks just like they would to anyone else."

"Your scars..."

"I got them from protecting her, at first I did okay, but then Gravel..." His eyes slammed shut as tears came pouring down his cheeks, "That bastard! He made us think he cared about her, made us think he loved her but then... He took her out one night without me knowing, he took her to the market and then... When I got there I saw the crowd laughing as he hit her again and again, cheering as he called some the vilest things..." He couldn't continue.

"I'm so sorry."

"I don't hold anything against you Cynder." Coal said in a sinister voice, "But I am not missing this opportunity to beat you senseless!"

**I'M BACK!**

**I'm sorry it took so long, I would have had this chapter up sooner but there were some unforeseen complications (my lung collapsed) but now I'm okay!**

**Now I know that most of these fights were pretty short but please take into account the fact that the candidates were up against Spyro, Cynder and Doom: Cynder was trained to kill from birth, Dooms a cyborg, and Spyro, enough said, the remaining two fights will be in the next chapter.**


	13. Chapter 13

TLoS: Shadow of Doom

Chapter 12

Coals fist was in her face before she had time to react, sending her reeling backward. Cynder managed to recover and began circling Coal, weighing her odds.

She and Coal were around the same height and weight, but Coal didn't fight like regular male dragons: his thin stature, light weight, and lack of physical strength meant he couldn't use the brute force tactics that male normally used, instead he relied on speed and cleverness to fight, as well as the fact that he was basically a living razor blade with his tusks and the edges of his wings, which were more effective than blades on Cynders wingtips.

Cynder quickly charged Coal and unleashed a flurry of punches, but Coal quickly blocked them with his tusks and began stabbing at Cynder with his tail-blade and tusks to drive her back.

"I take it you were sizing me up in the three seconds we were circling?" Coal mused, "That's rather impressive since most of the morons in my old neighborhood took five to ten seconds to size me up, but incase you forgot my brain is turbocharged; I was able size you up AND plan for every attack you could launch in half that time." Cynder quickly used a wind blast to knock Coal off balance and charged him, but he recovered and countered before she reached him, his tusks slashed a large cut in her left forepaw. "My brain is faster than your body!"

Cynder retreated to a safe distance. She suddenly felt like it was her first battle with Doom again; Coal seemed capable of thinking faster than any dragon she'd fought before and he was skilled in using the natural design of his body just like Doom was. Then she remembered that Coal was still flesh and blood.

Coal watched as Cynder stared at him while tending her injured paw, "She can't keep fighting on the ground while tending an injured paw, she'll have to take to the air in order to keep fighting with her usual speed and agility tactics, either that or she's going to keep using her elements, but it's just not logical for her to stay on the ground." His brain began prepping for all logical attacks she could perform, then Cynder started glowing red, "Is that a fury? No, she doesn't have a fire element, she has poison, wind and shadow..." He mentally slapped himself for being shortsighted, of course she wouldn't show one of her elements, especially since it was obvious these fights were going to happen, it made sense that she'd held herself back the same way he had, so now he just had to get ready for the fury, whatever element it was. He got his answer when four glowing red spheres appeared above Cynder.

"Fear! That can't be right, fear dragons were wiped out eons ago!" Then he realized that Cynder was most likely a shadow dragon, who were wiped out along with the fear dragons, plus he'd read that dragons who had been exposed to high levels of dark magic sometimes got extra elements, then Cynders attack hit!

Coal felt his entire body go stiff with an indescribable terror, the arena began to fade away and was replaced by the market from his village. "Ancestors not again, PLEASE!" But his prayers fell upon deaf ears and he was soon reliving the memory, forcing his way through the crowd, watching as Gravel held his sister to the ground and repeatedly punched her in the head. Then everything faded away, everything but the ground and his sisters broken body. "Wisp." Coal said weakly, practically choking on his own guilt, "I'm sorry, I should have seen what Gravel really was, I was just so happy that someone finally excepted you..."

"How could you Coal?!" Wisp suddenly shouted. "You swore you would prote-" The vision began to fade before she could finish.

"Your gonna have to do better than that Cynder!" Coal thought angrily, her illusion had one fatal flaw. Most dragons would be too emotional to notice details like that, but Coals special brain processed details better than it did emotions and ripped the illusion apart. As he began returning to reality he noticed that his body had a few more cuts and bruises and his shoulder had been dislocated, no doubt Cynder had taken the time to pound him while he was paralyzed, then he noticed Cynder had him pinned to the ground, but she hadn't noticed he'd recovered yet.

Coal quickly twisted his good arm, driving his boney wrist into Cynders injured paw, then when she released his hand he quickly threw a handful of sand in her eyes and wormed out from under her and limping away. "How did you recover so fast?"

Coals only reply was a satisfied smirk, he grabbed his arm and popped it back into his socket without so much as a grunt of pain. "You dragons and your underestimations." He said slyly, "Did anyone think that maybe I've been holding back all this time?" Everyone gasped; nobody thought that underneath his quite, withdrawn exterior Coal had hidden such a calculating intellect, that he'd been holding back throughout the trials so that they would see him as a weak, quite kid and never pay to much attention to him, and now he was going toe-to-toe with the Terror of the Skies and doing a decent job. His ability to hide his true skills had always been one of his best qualities. Now it was his turn to attack Cynders fears.

Coal opened his jaws and released a stream of napalm, a technique thought to be long forgotten, Cynder quickly jumped backwards to avoid the liquid fire. "Come on!" Coal shouted, turning himself into a flaming buzz saw and charging Cynder, who turned into smoke to avoid him, "We know you can do better than that!" A hurt look crossed Cynders face as she realized the implication, Coal quickly slashed her flank with his tusk, "Fight back!" He grabbed her and threw her into the wall. "I said fight back Terror!"

A distorted howl filled the air, Doom instinctually shoved Spyros head into the ground but the purple dragons scales were unchanged. Cynder erupted out of the dust cloud; her scale even darker and her eyes pale white. "You wanna fight, lets fight!"

Fireball shot Spyro a quick 'I told you so' look and settled into a fighting stance while the rest of the candidates nervously backed away: This was the Cynder they'd been taught to fear, the monster that had brought the dragon race to there knees, and Coal had cut her loose. "What the hell was he thinking?" Doom thought.

"I've got her right were I want her." Coal thought as he dodged Dark Cynders charge, while she was in this form she was an angry beast, the perfect opponent for one who fought with his mind, plus Coal had a few tricks to fight corrupted dragons, he just had to keep her like this long enough to brace himself. He and Dark Cynder charged again, viciously punching and slashing each other but Coal held most of the advantages; his thin body meant that Dark Cynder always hit bone when she punched him, he blocked most of her attacks with his tusks, his razor edged wings allowed him to attack from odd angles, his weak sense of touch gave him a high tolerance for pain, and by awakening Cynders corrupted side he'd caused her anger to suppress her mind. Things couldn't have been going any better for him, for a few seconds it seemed like he wouldn't need any special tricks to beat Dark Cynder, but then she hit him with another fear blast. This one was different then the fury; rather than make Coal relive his worst fear it just paralyzed him with sheer horror.

"No!" Coal thought, trying to get himself to move again. "This isn't right, there's nothing to be afraid of therefore no reason to be afraid, just move!" But he couldn't, the fear was overpowering his rational mind, he could only watch as Dark Cynder readied a shadow fury.

"CYNDER! STOP!" Spyros cry came to late, a bolt of shadow struck Coal and he was consumed by a blast of smoke.

"No!" Cynder gasped as she returned to her regular self, "Ancestors no." She couldn't believe she'd lost control, and now Coal was... The smoke began to clear and revealed a completely unharmed Coal, a shimmering wall of energy in front of him.

"What... How..." Cynder couldn't believe it, no one had ever survived that attack before!

"All those books I read on magic," Coal replied "And you didn't think that maybe I knew a few things?" The energy shield faded away, "That's why I tricked you into releasing your corrupted side, I know spells that are designed to be used on corrupted dragons. Although now I don't suppose I could convince you to change back?"

"No."

"I thought so." Coal sighed, "Looks like its time for plan B."

"You had a plan B?!"

"I had a plan H." A look of concentration crossed Coals face, golden runes appeared on his body and he began to shimmer, and when he stopped everyone gasped.

Cynder wasn't fighting one Coal anymore, but five! "Let's finish this!" They said in unison and attacked Cynder from all sides.

"Terrador this can't be legal!" Spyro cried.

"Coal's not the first candidate who's studied magic Spyro." Terradore replied, "In fact it was rather common in ancient times."

"But this is ridiculous!" Coal and his clones threw Cynder into the wall and a small alarm went off in Dooms head.

"Uh-oh."

"What's that suppose to mean?" Spyro asked.

"I think her implant just broke."

"Doom you've given us so many implants-"

"The REALLY important implant!"

"Oh no!" Just then Cynder managed to pick herself up of the ground, her movements were slow and stiff, her eyes filled with horror.

"This fight is over!" The Coals declared, charging Cynder to deliver the final blows, Cynder quickly launched a poison fury and showered them with venom. Coals clones disappeared into puffs of smoke while the real Coal fell to the ground, cringing as the acid burnt through his scales. "I'm not... Not done... Yet." He gasped, pushing himself to his feet.

"Coal you've been poisoned." Terrador said, "You're in no shape to continue." Coal didn't listen, the runes appeared again and he began rapidly convulsing, energy radiated from his body.

"Coal are you mad?!" Volteer cried, "No one has ever performed that spell before and survived!" Coal ignored the guardians cry and kept going, pouring more energy into his spell. Then he suddenly stopped, the runes faded and he fell to the ground, clenching his stomach and vomiting blood. Cynder gave a sigh of relief, her poison had entered his bloodstream.

"Wisp." Coal gasped weakly, "I'm sorry." Cynder walked up next to him.

"Beating me wasn't going to do anything for her Coal." She said softly.

"Yeah." Coal said, managing a small smile, "Turns out I knew that in my head but not my heart. Damn I hate when that happens, it always ends badly..." He began to drift away, Cynder quickly sucked the poison out of him and injected some chemicals that would hopefully keep him alive.

Everyone took a few minutes to recover from what had just happened and then began preparing for the next fight: Terrador repaired the arena, Cyril extinguished Coals napalm, Explosion pulled Coal out of the arena so that Volteer could look him over, and Doom fixed Cynders back.

"Alright," Terrador said after the repairs were complete, "I know that what just happened was shocking, but worse things have occurred in the past and the trials have continued, which is what we will do now. Doom, Fireball, are you two okay to fight?"

"Definitely." Doom answered

"I've been looking forward to this all day," Fireball said, "I'm not gonna back down because that nutcase has some family issues."

"Then take your positions." Terradors voice had darkened at Fireballs response.

Doom moved to enter the arena but Inferna quickly grabbed his shoulder, "Go kick his ass." she said, "And... Be careful."

"Don't worry, I'm always careful." Doom took his position in the ring, Fireball was scratching at the ground like a bull, it was no secret he was going to charge.

"FIGHT!"

Doom and Fireball charged each other until Doom jumped out of the way at the last second, slashing the side of Fireballs neck with his tail. Fireball quickly grabbed the wound and tried to stop the fountain of blood spraying out.

"Give it up Fireball!" Doom said, "I cut your jugular with that hit, you can't keep fighting!" Flames crackled to life in Fireballs hand and he pressed them against his neck, growling in pain as he cauterized the wound.

"I'm surprised you tried to pull such a dangerous attack so quickly." Fireball stated.

"Figured that damn ego of yours would shrink if I let some blood out."

"Or maybe you're just trying to get rid of me."

"Would you quite it with the whole 'Dooms evil' thing, I think I've proven that it's not true."

"Oh please!" Fireball shot back, "You really think I'm falling for that? I grew up fighting monsters like you!"

"Then lets see how tough you really are!" Doom growled, they charged again, no tricks this time.

Soon Doom and Fireball were a flurry of fists, teeth, and tail-blades. They hammered each other full force and were soon covered in slashes, bruises, and in Dooms case dents, Fireball wound up for another swing at Dooms face but Doom caught the blow and tried to punch Fireball with his mechanical arm, but to his surprise Fireball managed to stop the blow. For a few seconds the two of them grappled and tried to physically overpower each other, then Fireball suddenly threw Doom to the side.

"No way! He can't be stronger than me!" Doom thought in shock, but he didn't have time to dwell on it, Fireball was already coming for another round. Doom quickly fired bolas that bound Fireballs mouth and legs then pounced at him to slam his head into the ground, but Fireball ripped through the metal cables and launched a jet of flame at Doom.

"Okay, maybe he CAN be stronger than me!" Doom thought as he spread his wings to gain altitude, he quickly launched a knife that buried itself in Fireballs shoulder, Fireball just ripped it out and cauterized the wound. Undaunted, Doom threw a grenade at Fireball, but to his surprise Fireball jumped up, grabbed the grenade, and threw it back at Doom. Doom was to shocked to react and took the full force of the blast.

Doom had never been hit with a grenade before, and he never wanted to be hit by one again: the heat burnt his scales, the concussion cracked his ribs, the shockwave knocked him out of the air, his ears were ringing and he couldn't think straight, he could just barely see Fireball walking over to him, he felt someone grab his shoulders and pull him to his feet. "Get up and fight!" An angry voice growled, then a barrage of punches rained down on him, all he could do was try and stagger away. "Looks like Malefor didn't make you as strong as you wanted."

That snapped him out of it.

"I, NEVER, WANTED, THIS!" Doom roared, punching Fireball in the chest and sending him flying across the arena. "You were trained all your life to fight, but I guarantee that you don't know ANYTHING about real pain!"

"I beg to differ!"

"Then lets see what you can do!" Fireballs only response was to blast Doom with a jet of flame, Doom didn't try to avoid it or defend himself, he just let the flame wash over him. "You call that pain?"

"No, I call it a warm up!" Fireball shot back, Dooms plan was working perfectly; he'd get Fireball to waste his strength in a show of power than take him down at range where a couldn't fight back. There contest continued for several minutes; Fireball launching attacks and Dooms just shrugging them off and mocking him. Finally Fireball had had enough and charged a fury.

"This is it!" Doom thought eagerly, he could tell that Fireball was running out of energy. "I'll dodge this attack and blast that stuck up bastard into the dirt!" Fireball released his fury, sending a massive blast of fire directly at his foe, Doom quickly leapt into the air and managed to get above the blast. "Yes!" Finally he'd be able to put Fireball in his place, show him that just because he was a Wanderer it didn't mean he was better than everyone else, when this fight was over-

"ARGH!"

Dooms blood froze when he heard that scream, he slowly looked back...

"INFERNA!" How could he not have noticed he was standing right in front of her? How did he forget to check if anyone was behind him? It didn't matter, Inferna had been hit with the fury and it was all his fault. Time slowed as the attack hit her, as her burnt body flew backwards and hit the wall with a sickening crack.

"No, Ancestors no." Doom pleaded, praying that this was all some horrible dream and that he would wake up, but it wasn't. Then Doom remembered his healing abilities, he quickly rushed toward his injured friend, he could still fix this!

Suddenly someone grabbed him from behind and threw him toward the center, he looked up and saw Fireball settling into his fighting stance, "We're not done yet!"

"Are you nuts!? She's hurt!"

"Things happen on the battlefield!" Fireball replied coldly.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Terrador roared, "FIREBALL, THIS FIGHT IS OVER!"

"No." Doom said in a dark voice, "If he wants to end it, then lets END IT!" Every thing was clear to Doom now; he wasn't the one who hurt Inferna, Fireball was! Spyro gasped at the murderous gleam in Dooms eye, he hadn't seen it since Doom came after Cynder.

Doom fired a plasma blast before Fireball could react, sending him rolling across the ground, Fireball immediately started to rise but Doom blasted him again, again he started to rise but with some difficulty. Another blast, he tried to rise but his legs were having trouble supporting him. Another blast, Fireball only could legs could barely support him as he tried to get up. Another blast, Fireball tried to rise again but his legs gave out beneath him.

Doom fired another blast that sent Fireball crashing into the wall, the warrior dragon didn't have the energy to try and get up, he just lay there and stared at Doom. There was no fear in his eyes, instead there was what looked like... Acceptance, as though he wanted to die.

Readying a final plasma blast, Doom was all to happy to help him.

**Wow... Talk about a cliffhanger!**

**Also I just wanted to address something, I found in the reviews that some people seem think that I was saying that Coal had a right to beat Cynder senseless; that's not what I meant, the only reason he said what he said or acted the way he did was because he wanted to get back at Cynder even if he didn't know it, and after what happened to his sister can you really blame him?**

**So next chapter I'm gonna be giving you guys a bit of a look into Coals past, that's right your finally gonna learn some things about our strange friend. And please don't get angry at me for the whole giving Coal magic thing, I'll explain some more in the next chapter.**


	14. Chapter 14

TLoS: Shadow of Doom

Chapter 13

Cynder paced anxiously in front of the door, was she really the best person for this? Why had she even volunteered? Because she need to apologize, that was why. She stopped and raised her paw to knock but then stopped as a single thought crossed her mind; how would she do this? When she, Doom, and Spyro had gone to Warfang she'd met a few dragons who's lives she'd ruined one way or another and she'd apologize to them even though not all of them accepted, some had even tried to attack her, but she'd apologized: for murdering hatchling and mate, for destroying homes and families, she had even met one dragon that she had tortured. But now she was facing a new challenge: How would she apologize to a dragon whose life she'd ruined without even meeting him? Realizing there was only one way to find out Cynder knocked on the door and hoped for the best.

"Coal?" She called softly, no one answered. "Coal, can I come in? I need to talk to you." Once again there was no answer, Cynder sighed and slowly pushed the door open.

Coals room was one of the strangest things she'd ever seen, just like the dragon that lived in it.

There were stacks of books everywhere, some of them almost reached the ceiling, but they were meticulously organized, there was what looked like a small alchemy lab against one wall, the ingredients had been sorted and labeled to the point of OCD, the other wall had a table with dozens of small, half-finished machines, and there were papers scattered all over the room; pictures of plants with lists of there alchemic properties, schematics for buildings and machines, anatomical drawings of various creatures from dragons to dragonflies, maps of various locations and ancient battles, star charts, there were even drawings of what looked like mechanical body parts, though they weren't nearly as advanced as Dooms, a harsh chemical smell hung in the air, and in the center of the back wall was the bed with the young black dragon lying on it, his body covered in bandages, his scars completely visible.

"Hi Coal." He didn't respond, he had returned to his regular distant state but instead of his regular distracted or thoughtful look his face held a look of sadness. "I guess your not really in the mood to talk, the guardians needed someone to make sure you were doing okay so I volunteered." He still didn't answer, Cynder slowly moved towards him and began examining the bandages, it was immediately clear that he'd removed the ones Volteer had applied and put on his own which were soaked in a chemicals, Cynders poison element told her they would keep him from getting infected.

"I wanted to apologize, I don't know what it must be like losing someone that close to you just because they looked like me, I don't know how to apologize for something like that and I wish I could do more, but all I can do is say that I'm sorry your sister died because of me." Cynder could see the tears forming in Coals eyes and feel them forming in hers, with nothing else to do and nothing to do she turned to leave.

"She's not dead."

Cynder whirled around, her eyes wide with shock, "What?"

"I lost her that night but she's not dead, not on the outside."

"What do you mean?" Coals story was getting stranger by the second.

"Learning that everyone thought she was a monster, that the dragon she loved had really just been trying to get her away from me and our parents..." Coals voice trailed off and tears ran down his face, "It broke her, she might still be alive but she's basically dead."

Cynder walked over and sat next to him, figuring it was better to start at the beginning, "What's her name?"

"Wisp." Coal sniffed, "She's the only good thing I have left in that hellhole. You've got no idea what it's like in my old village Cynder, even before people realized how much she looked like you it was horrible; everyone got the shit kicked out of them everyday, everyone hated everyone, it was worse than the Warfang Slums!" Coals sudden outburst shocked Cynder; the whole time Coal had been at the temple he'd barely said a word about his past or his home, and now he was screaming it in her face. She kept calm and tried to think of something to calm him.

"It doesn't sound like like a good place to find wisdom."

"What?"

"What you said to Fireball on your first day, 'Here's some wisdom from my village. Never underestimate an opponent-'"

"Race, gender, physical stature," Coal effortlessly recited, "In the end it doesn't matter, they can kick you butt no matter who or what they are." He paused for a moment, "I learned that when I saw an ice dragon that was bigger than Terrador get his ass handed to him by a VERY old mole." A small smile split his lips, "I'll never forget the stunned look on on his face as that mole pinned him to the ground..."

"Sounds like quite a sight." Cynder replied.

"... And I'll never forget the horror in his eyes as that mole slit his throat." Coal finished, his smile had vanished and the golden runes pulsed softly across his body, shining through his bandages, the translucent face of an ice dragon appeared behind, life slowly draining from his fearful eyes.

Cynder closed her eyes and looked away, she'd seen that far to many time, "Could you please stop."

"Stop wha... Oh, sorry!" The runes and face faded away. "Magic is sometimes controlled by emotions, I can't always choose what it does."

"What's with those runes anyway?"

"They're marks of those who have a connection to magic, you've got something similar." He gestured to the marks on her shoulders and forehead. "Though I'm guessing yours are more related to your corruption than to any magical affinity." He was right, Malefor had never taught her anything about magic, most likely fearing she would escape his control before she could free him.

"Why did you learn how to do magic anyway? Wasn't your element and your fighting skills enough?" Coal let out a small laugh.

"If it wasn't for magic I wouldn't have been able to give you such a hard fight in the arena, I used it to make myself stronger and weaken my sense of touch before our match started, and as for why I began studying magic..." His face filled with nostalgia, "Knowledge for knowledges sake at first; for me learning is an addiction, the more I know the more I want to know and so I began to study whatever I could in the hopes that I would learn more!" There was an inspired light in his eye as he weakly pushed himself up and began pacing the room, "Everything you see in here in here is a product of my lust for knowledge, my hunger for wisdom, I'll never stop Cynder, there's just so much to learn in this world!" Cynder couldn't help but laugh as Coal began rambling like an excited hatchling, amazed at the personality he'd kept hidden beneath his quite exterior.

"I think the Chronicler might have some competition!"

"Indeed." Coal replied, his manic energy beginning to fade, "But all this knowledge has it's drawbacks, I may have been able to augment myself to fight you but now that it's worn off I feel completely wiped..." His voice trailed off for a second, a look of contemplation crossed his face, "Would you like me to show you my favorite power?"

"What?!" Cynder couldn't believe it, Coal had hated her several hours ago and now he'd just asked to show her something like that! "I don't know Coal, you're exhausted and..."

Coals laughter cut her off, "Relax Cynder!" He chuckled, "Im not gonna clone myself or anything, I just want to make myself glow a little bit!" He fell over in hysterics and pounded the ground with his fist.

"Alright, calm down." Cynder said, trying not to laugh at the spectacle. "You can show me, just promise me you won't nearly kill yourself again."

"Don't worry," Coal managed to settle down, "I was angry when I tried that, I'm not gonna do it again." He grabbed a blank piece of paper and began rubbing his paw over it, the runes on his body glowed back into existence and a picture began to form on the paper, after a few seconds Coal stopped and showed it to Cynder.

It was a picture of her and Spyro lying under the tree in the gardens from the day before; his wing draped over her, her head on his shoulder and his head on top of hers, there eyes where closed and they were just enjoying each other company. Cynder almost cried at the sheer beauty of the picture; the sunlight seemed to hit her and Spyros scales at the perfect angle, glinting slightly on there horns, Coal had perfectly captured the happiness on there faces at that moment. "You can keep it if you want." Cynder gently took the picture in her hands, feeling her heart ache as she looked at its beauty.

"Thank you."

"Sure thing." Coal said suddenly becoming frustrated, he punched the wall.

"Why did you do that?" Cynder said, shocked at how quickly Coals mood kept changing.

"Because." He growled, more at himself than at Cynder, "I wish I could use what I know for more things like that, to help people and make them happy, but that damned village... My knowledge is tainted Cynder, protecting Wisp and surviving there, I had to use it to hurt people, really badly in some cases."

"Didn't you have friends? Did your parents help?"

"My 'friends' abandoned me when I 'Betrayed my kind to protect a monster.'" Coal snarled, "And as for my parents..." He walked over to a pouch he'd brought with him and pulled out another picture then threw it too the ground in front of Cynder.

There were four dragons: a fire dragon with blood red scales, he had four horns on his head similar to hers and his tail-blade was a short sword, his face was an annoyed scowl as though he was frequently disappointed and his wing draped over a dragoness. She had the sickly green scales of a poison dragon, instead of horns she had two tusks almost exactly like Coals and her tail-blade was a scythe like Cynders, her eyes held an extreme disinterest in the world as though it where beneath her, the third dragon was Coal and the last...

"Ancestors!" Cynder gasped, "If Blake and Drake are twins then what are Wisp and I?"

Coal hadn't been exaggerating when he said that she and Wisp looked exactly alike, they where the same shade of black and pink, they had the same build, the only thing missing was the jewelry and the markings! Then Cynder recovered from the shock and realized that there where differences, but they weren't natural: Wisp was covered in scars from claws and fists, most of them done up close with no resistance, the horns on the right side of her head had been broken off, and her eyes were dead, lifeless, and broken, something Cynder had seen to many times before.

"My parents are the closest thing to nobility there is the that shit hole." Coal snarled, "My mother barely has anything to do with our lives, I doubt she even noticed what's happened to Wisp and I over the years."

"What was so bad about your father?"

"He wanted a princess and a warrior, instead he got a Hell spawn and mentally disabled fish bone." Coal said bluntly, Cynder couldn't help but ask the one question she'd been hoping to avoid.

"What happened to her?" Coal was quiet for a long while, then he spoke in a pain-filled whisper.

"An earth dragon named Gravel, he tricked me and made me think he loved her, then one night he took her to the market without me knowing and dropped his ruse... He beat her in front of a cheering crowd, told her that she was a monster and that everyone hated her, that he'd never loved her... She hasn't spoken since then, she barely eats or sleeps, she's a broken soul after what he did to her."

"Did he..." Cynder tried to look for the right way to phrase such a sensitive question.

"No." Coal already knew what she was going to ask, "If he'd done that, I'd have killed him."

"What did you do to him?"

"His scales were green when I first met him, there blacker than mine now."

"Ancestors!"

"Like I said, I'm forced to use my knowledge to hurt people in order to keep her safe." Again his rune appeared and the spectral form of an earth dragon appeared in front of him, the cruel smile on its face slowly turning to horror as his body was covered by liquid fire. "I didn't take any joy in hurting anyone before Gravel, but it felt good to hear him scream after what he did her..." Coal closed his eyes in desperate attempt to hold back the tears. "I failed her Cynder; we couldn't possibly have been closer, I never wanted anything from her and the one thing swore to do was keep her safe!" Coal angrily spun around and knocked over one book stacks, "She didn't know that people hated, that they thought she was going to become some cruel monster and I swore that I would keep her safe from that... And I failed." He collapsed back on his bed and began weeping.

"It's alright." Cynder said softly, "You couldn't have kept her safe forever."

"Yeah," Coal sighed, "But it's sure nice to have the fantasy... I'm sorry for what happened in the arena Cynder, I usually have a better hold on my emotions, it's just that after everything that's happened to Wisp... You didn't deserve what happened, I promise I'll make it up to you."

Cynder smiled softly and held up the picture of her and Spyro, "You already have." There was a silence between them for several minutes, then Coal nervously spoke up.

"So... Are we... Friends?"

Cynders eyes widened in surprise, "Everyone here is your friend Coal, okay maybe not Fireball, but everyone else is your friend."

"Thanks, it's just that... I haven't had friends in so long, and with my condition it's hard for me to tell."

"Condition?" Cynder repeated, cocking her head to the side in confusion, "What condition? Sure your a little skinny but I don't see anything else wrong with you."

"It's not my body." Coal replied. "It's my mind. It... Doesn't work right"

"So your-"

"I'm not crazy!" Coal snapped. "I have a mental disability, not a psychosis!"

"Calm down. I wasn't going to say anything like that."

"I'm sorry." Coal sighed. "It's just... I'm sick of everyone who finds out about my condition treating me like dirt, saying I'm crazy, stupid, pathetic, worthless-"

"Okay, I think your exaggerating a bit-"

"My father disowned me, I admit I never liked him much but it still hurt, how is that exaggerating?" Coal replied coldly.

"Okay, okay." Cynder replied calmly, hoping to get Coal to settle down before he hurt himself. "Let's try a different topic, what exactly does your condition do to you?"

"Well, I can only tell you what I've been told." Coal replied. "I know I have trouble understanding my emotions, Wisp helped me learn to recognize anger, fear, sadness and happiness but I haven't learned some of the more complicated ones. I also have trouble socializing, just in case you didn't guess." He chuckled halfheartedly. "But what I lack in social skills I make up for in raw intellect: I can process dozens of thoughts at once and think faster than any normal dragon, I can remember every second of my life in perfect clarity, and my senses are way stronger than normal."

"Impressive skill set."

"Thanks... It's been awhile since I was able to talk to somebody like this. It makes me feel... Happy, I think." Coal laughed at the last part.

"I'll tell the guardians your alright." Cynder smiled as she walked out of the room.

"Thank you... Again." Coal called as she closed the door and left him in his own world.

**(AN: In case you didn't guess Coal is autistic just like me. That's why it took me so long to write this chapter; I was trying to think of how I would react in those situations. Coals life is completely fictional, his symptoms and personality are based off of mine and other autistics I know or have read about.)**

Infirmary

"NO!" That was Fireballs only thought as he felt himself slipping out of deaths cold grip. "No please! Why are you leaving me? Haven't I suffered enough? Is seeing there faces every time I'm alone not enough torment? Just let me die already!" But his prayers were unanswered as he began to slowly return to the world. He slowly opened his eyes and saw that he was very much alive.

"No." He weeped softly and pounded his fist against the ground. "Why can't I just die? Why won't the Ancestors take me? Why didn't he kill me?"

"Curiosity."

Fireball looked up and saw Doom staring down at him. "Right as I was about blast you into atoms a realized that it looked like you wanted to die. Now why would that be?" Doom finished mockingly. "You're a candidate to become the next fire guardian, and your one the 'great, mighty, and all powerful Wanderers!' What reason do you have to want to die?"

"I don't want to talk about it." Fireball grumbled as he rolled onto his side, Doom responded by pressing his metal leg onto Fireballs broken ribs.

"Normally I'd let you deal with your deep emotional trauma on your own but seeing as how you hurt my friend..." He began pressing harder. "Your not getting off that easy!" Despite his anger Doom was impressed with Fireballs endurance: most dragons would be screaming for him to stop with how hard he was pushing on Fireballs ribs but the warrior dragon had barely groaned. Then again, he didn't know that Wanderers were trained to resist extreme amounts of physical pain before they even learned how to fight.

"I've had enough." Fireball said calmly. "I want to die, that's as simple as it is."

"SHUT UP!" Doom roared. "You have no idea what it's like to truly have enough! To truly want to die!"

"I'm more familiar with it than you think!" Fireball shot back.

"Then if you want to die so badly..." Doom raised his metal arm above his head, readying a death blow. "Then I'll be glad to help you!" He brought his fist down.

"NO WAIT!" Fireball quickly caught Dooms fist and, despite his injuries, stopped the blow.

"I knew it." Doom spat. "You don't really want to die, not when it counts."

"Oh, believe me, there's nothing I'd love more than to just end it all now." Fireball grumbled. "But there is an ancient curse laid upon the Wanderers: we cannot die voluntarily, we must be slain by another or our souls will not bond with nature. Instead we will be cursed to wander the world alone until time itself ceases to exist."

"So you've been acting like a jackass this whole time in the hopes that one of us would hate you enough to kill you?!"

"Yes." Fireball sighed. Doom was immediately filled with rage; taking a life was a choice you made, it should never be made for you.

"You had better have a damn good reason for trying something like that!"

"I killed my old squad!" Fireball shouted back, then his anger was quickly replaced by sorrow and regret. "There where ten of us total, all dragons, we pulled of some of the toughest missions there where, even amongst the Wanderers we where considered better than average, especially for our age. Eventually it began to go to are heads, we started thinking we were invincible. Then during one battle we disobeyed orders and attempted to kill the enemy commander..." He paused for a moment. "We would have succeeded..."

"But the enemy commander was Cynder." Doom realized.

"Yes... She killed seven of my squad mates, friends who I had trained and fought and bled beside all my life... Gone just like that! After that me and the other two survivors where reminded that we were still mortal and we became obsessed with taking revenge on Cynder for the friends she'd stolen from us. Then one day the Wanderers received news that Cynder had been defeated... Imagine how shocked my squad and I where when we found her: scared, alone, and uncorrupted in the middle of a forest while we were out scouting..."

"I take it you attacked?" Fireball just nodded. "How did that go for you?"

"She... Killed my last two squad mates in self defense... We hadn't called for backup... Too focused on revenge. I chased her through the forest until I collapsed from blood loss, I was conscious for just long enough to see the Scavengers grab her, then I woke up in a medical tent."

"You can't blame Cynder for your arrogance." Doom snarled.

"I DON'T!" Fireball cried, finally breaking as the memories of his dead friends came rushing back. "In the Wanderers you're trained that your success belong to the group, never to you alone, while your failures are no ones fault but yours. I was there squad leader! It was my job to make sure they remembered that they weren't invincible but I did the opposite and encouraged them to grow egos, and after the first seven died it was my job to make sure that the others didn't lose themselves to revenge but instead I encouraged it again." He paused a moment. "How many have you killed Doom? A few Apes, some Grublins maybe? I've kill Apes, Grublins, Ogres, Wyverns, Cheetahs, Moles, even other dragons! I have the blood of thousands on my hands but the only deaths that weigh on my conscience are those nine! I see there faces every time I close my eyes, hear there voices whenever the wind blows, and when I'm alone they come to torment me, accusing me of sending them to there deaths voluntarily! So believe me when I say that I want nothing more than to die so that I may go to them and apologize to them in person!" Fireball finally stopped his rant, staring angrily at Doom, for several seconds there was silence.

"I know what it's like to want to die Fireball." Doom said at last. "To be pushed beyond the breaking point and finally give up. And a few hours ago might have even sympathized with you. But after what you did to Inferna... Cry me a fucking river!" And with that he stormed out, Fireball looked around nervously as he waited for his waking nightmare to begin. And he didn't have to wait long as his deceased friends began to assemble.

Then the torture began.

"You promised I'd come home alive!" "You said there was nothing to be afraid of!" "I warned you we wouldn't survive the battle, my predictions where always true before!" "Iknowwedidn'tgetalongwellbutkillingmewasjustcruel !" "I looked up to you and this is how you repay me!" "You monster!" "With all do respect sir, you're a disgrace to the Wanderers!"

And then they came, the two who had survived the first battle with Cynder: Omega and Blizzard.

"We were like brothers Fireball!" Omega snarled, rage burning in his one good eye. "Brothers in all but blood we used to say, I guess that didn't mean anything to you!"

"I cared about you Fireball!" Blizzard shouted, her face a mixture of rage and grief. "We were closer than friends, closer than squad mates, I loved you and I thought you loved me... Turns out I was wrong."

Fireball just whimpered and covered his head with his paws, knowing it was useless to apologize or beg for them to stop, he would just have to suffer through it for however long it lasted. He looked at the symbol of the Wanderers tattooed on his right palm: a shield with a dragons skull in the center, the names of his former teammates wrapping around the rim. How many times had he tried to burn his name off? Even if he hadn't betrayed them willingly he'd still done it. It was the job of every squad leader to make sure their team remembered that no matter how good they were, they were still mortal, and he'd done the exact opposite.

"ANCESTORS! WHY WON'T YOU JUST TAKE ME?!"

Another Infirmary **(AN: At any point during this part of chapter please feel free to start playing 'This Broken Soul' in the background.)**

"I should have stayed with Fireball." Doom thought, not because he was worried about the grieving Wanderer, but because anything would be better than what he was forced to suffer through now. Lying asleep on a bed in front of him was Inferna, her body covered in burns and bandages, shaking and whimpering in agony from the fury that was meant for him.

"Why did this have to happen to her? She doesn't deserve this." He thought as he stared down at his injured friend, a part of him was telling him that it wasn't right for him to be there, but at the same time he couldn't bear to leave her side. "I shouldn't have wasted all my energy blasting that piece of filth, if I hadn't then I'd be able to help her." Then a strange instinct took over him and he, very slowly, moved his head down and nuzzled her.

"What am I doing?" Doom thought in shock. "Sure she's a good friend and she's hurt but I don't feel that way about her, can't risk-" why did he even bother? That argument became less believable each time he said it. Then he heard footsteps behind him he quickly pulled away and turned to see Cyril enter the room with a bucket of water in his jaws."What's that for?"

"Treating her wounds." Cyril replied as he set the water down and began dunking a sponge in the bucket.

"Couldn't you just blast some ice on them?"

"No." Cyril replied as he began to scrubbing Infernas burns with the sponge, she seemed to relax a little as the water sucked the heat from the burns. "Cooling them to quickly could cause irreparable damage, water is much better suited for treating burn wounds than ice."

"How could this happen to her?" Doom asked with a note of desperation in his voice. "She's a fire dragon, shouldn't she be resistant to fire attacks?"

"Fireball is a Wanderer." Cyril said simply. "The training they go through is intense and brutal, I've several times spoken to the other guardians about having them brought up on charges for various racial rites violations."

"Why?"

"There training begins at a very young age, many do not survive."

"Hm." Doom replied not really paying attention, his thoughts stuck with Inferna. Slowly he extended his metal claw; the claw that could smash through steel, stone, and bone effortlessly, and began gently stoking her cheek. "Why is the world so cruel?" He thought. "Doing this to Inferma, turning Cynder and I into monsters, forcing Spyro into a life of conflict, stealing Blake and Drakes mother and Coals sister, causing Explosion to be alienated for his love of destruction, even Fireball, why did his friends have to die while he lives on haunted by memories and blaming himself." Tears began to form in Dooms single organic eye.

"Doom." Cyril said softly. "Don't worry, she'll be alright. She's a strong girl."

"Yeah." Doom relied softly, still staring at her. Why did he feel like something was missing? When he looked at her he felt like there was something wrong, something that wasn't there anymore, something she always- Her necklace! She'd left it with him the night before the fights, fearing it would be damaged if she wore it.

She'd trusted him with her most prized possession.

"I'm gonna go get some rest, try and recover some of my strength." He told Cyril as he walked out of the room, running off as soon as he turned the corner.

**(AN: You can stop the music now.)**

Doom quickly ran into his room and closed the door. He cautiously scanned the room to make sure no one was nearby and moved to a small crack in the floor where he'd hidden the necklace, it was too thin for even Coals bony hands to slip into but his cables could do the job and gently wrapped around it as he pulled it out. Doom looked at the small piece of wood in his claw. Why was it so important to Inferna? Why was she willing to go through so much to protect it? "I need to talk with her when she wakes up." Doom thought as he hid the necklace in one of the weapons compartments in his arm. "Maybe then I can figure out if I really do feel that way about her... And if she feels the same." Doom sighed as he turned to leave the room, where did friendship end and more than friendship begin? And how did you know if you where there and if the person you cared about was there as well? All those thoughts vanished when he opened the door. A white figure dropped down in front of him and his blood turned to ice.

"DAEDALUS!" He cried as leapt backwards and fired a plasma blast that reduced the ape to splinters. "Splinters!?" Then he realized that the ape was just a training dummy covered in white fur, he looked back and saw the tripwire attached to his door. A triumphant laugh suddenly filled the air and Doom looked to see Blake walking out of one of the vacant rooms, a curious gleam in his eyes.

"Not good!"

**AN: Well things have certainly started getting interesting now haven't they? Will Doom finally realize that he loves Inferna? Is Inferna going to be alright? Will Fireball finally stop acting like a jackass now that Doom's mopped the floor with him? And is Blake going to realize just how much that name means to Doom?**

**Congrats to anyone who can guess which ancient warriors the Wanderers are based off of.**

**And finally I just want to say something to Loneshadow117**

**I didn't take any offense from your review, infact you helped me realize that I did over power Coal a little and I thank you for that. So please don't worry, I take criticism very well and I've gotten much worse than that in the past so no hard feelings.**


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